Tribute to John Kynaston

Very sad to hear the news of John Kynaston's passing on Tuesday 12th January 2021. John was such a big inspiration for me to write my own blog which I started way back in 2009 after reading many, many of his blog entries. Not only that but I have him to thank for adding me to the http://whwblogs.blogspot.com/ blog roll which connected me to so many other people in the ultra runnning community. It not only allowed me to share my experiences with them but allowed me to find all about the people in Scotland running ultras. While I still follow whats going on in ultras now, I was obsessed with ultras back then and loved the spreadsheets with splits from races that John used to produce. Pouring over them to see how peoples races developed. In the last 6 years this blog has been focused on parkruns and parkrun was where I met John a few times. The first at Pollok when John was doing his warm up while I was walking to my marshall position and he stopped for a chat. The second was at Linwood a week after he completed the Northern Traverse. He was at Linwood cheering on runners that day and I remember passing him, he gave me such a boost with his encouragement and I remember congratulating him on his previous weeks accomplishment. The amount of content John has produced in terms of blogs, podcasts and you tube videos has been nothing short of phenomenal. I will miss it. He was so enthusiastic and such a great runner too, so disiplined in planning and training for races. It's not surprising that he achieved so much in running. Thoughts are with his family at this difficult time. RIP John

2021 plans (?!)

 Yeah so traditionally this would layout exactly what I want to achieve in the year ahead but for obvious reasons this year its a little bit more tricky.  In the past few years my target has been to notch up as many parkruns as possible and by this stage I would have a number of trips booked in already for the summer. But even with the vaccine on the horizon, realistically I can't see races or parkruns happenning till at least summer at the very, very earliest.

So what to do then.  I don't think there is any point in making plans for the whole year but rather focus on want I want to do and improve upon over the next 4 months.  I did have an idea to maybe train for a virtual half at the end of April and that still is a possiblity.  But I need to change my routine to do that. The problem being I do like the routine I have got myself into last year.  And that was running 2, 3 lunchtimes during the week then on a Saturday too.  If I was to attempt training for a half that would mean I would have to extend my runs during the week which would mean I would have to run after work.  

The other thing I was thinking of doing was really trying to improve my 5k time.  What I have found in the past is though my 5k time improves the most when I train for longer distances.  So to do this again I would have to run after work and not at lunchtimes.  

I think the two aims kind of fit in with each other.  I know how easy it is though just to stay in after work.  But I think it is at least worth a try and see if I can get anywhere with the getting faster and going longer approach while keeping my 5ks on a Saturday.  If I find I'm not going out after work I can still resort to 5k lunchtime runs.

I'll still aim for averging under 30 mins for 5ks and I have another aim here of trying to run more than 20 sub 30 minute 5ks.

Happy new year and good luck with your own running goals if you have them

2020 stats

 Well I have given you my thoughts on how my year is gone, now its time to look at the stats.  One of the reasons I love parkrun is because of the records it keeps, and oh yeah the community is great too :-P

In early 2018 I had targeted 2020 to complete 250 parkruns, aptly named the 2020 project.  This obviously wasn't meant to be but at the same time I did make some progress towards it early in the year and I am now on 227 parkruns.  Also I managed another different parkrun in Scotland so I have now run 37 different Scottish parkruns which is out of about 59 I think. Altogether (with English parkruns included) I have run 46 different parkruns.  

Average parkrun time

Now if I was just to take the average time of the 8 parkruns I did early in the year it would have been a bit harsh as mainly all hilly courses done in winter when fitness generally not at its peak. But lucky (not) parkrun started and I can include them in the average too.  I did do 100 (not) parkruns which includes quite a lot of walks.  These walks didnt replace runs but were more of an addition. Ie, I wouldnt have gone out rather than I meant to go a run but I walked instead.  So altogether I ran 56 (not) parkruns, therefore walked 44. Which is not bad when 6 weeks I did no running and all walking due to injury.   I won't include anything between mid March and June as I was just doing random distances.

So

2017 - 31.04 (35 runs)

2018 - 31.52 (46 runs)

2019 - 30.33 (44 runs)

2020 - 31.40 (64 runs)

So faster average than 2018 but slower than 2017 and 2019.  Maybe because this includes midweek  runs where I could be saving myself for other days.  Also counts about 20 more runs than any other year so maybe more difficult to compare this year. Pleased with the volume i managed though.

Now for how those 64 runs were distributed in terms of time.

27 -28 mins - 1 run

28 - 29 mins - 7 runs

29 - 30 mins - 9 runs

30 - 35 mins - 41 runs

35 mins + - 6 runs

So interestingly this year I broke 30 minutes 17 times whereas last year I broke 30 mins 20 times.  Not really that much of a difference. 

I'll go into my plans for next year in my next post.  But I think the absolete key this year is that I have kept my running going and it really has given me the boost I need when I need it. 

2020 in review

 Well like every other human being on the planet, 2020 didn't go to plan.  But although it has been challenging and I know many who have had an incredibly tough year for a variety of reasons.  For me there has been positives and I have had worse years.   Keeping the running going especially has kept me sane for starter and I manage to adapt pretty well to the change in circumstances.  This post I'll give a general overall look at how my running went.

January to March

Business as usual till mid March where I managed to do 8 parkruns including incorporating a parkrun I hadn't done before which was Fort William.  7 of the parkruns I did were over 30 minutes but of those all of them were on hilly courses including Pollok, Queens and Tollcross.  The one time I did get under 30 minutes was the only flat course I did and that was at Linwood where I managed 28.55.

March to June

I had talked to my parents before lockdown came that if lockdown was to come I would move in with them. So it was good to be prepared and that is what I did between mid March and June.  Being bi-polar my mental health was of prime importance and being locked in the flat by myself it could have potentially led to me being in a bad place mentally.  While my mental health was actually pretty good because of the move during this time my running wasn't as good as it could have been. I failed to get into good routines and even missed running on Saturday's just to go out for walks. On a positive note I did get into the routine of at least going out for a walk every single day so I actually managed to lose some weight for the first time in a while.

June to September

Late June the lockdown restrictions were lifted a bit so I moved back to the flat as now you could form a bubble if you lived on your own. So my parents would come up to mine and I would go up to theirs for dinners quite often.  This was also when (not) parkrun started where you could submit 5k times to the parkrun website and do them wherever and whenever you wanted.  This was what I needed to get myself going and I got into good lunchtime routines and also getting the Saturday runs in too.  I think one of the keys was getting deliveries from Parsley box for my lunch time meals so I didn't have to go out each lunchtime to get lunch as I would do previously.  So now at lunchtime I could have lunch and go for a walk or run.  Again I did this pretty much every day and altogether I think I've only missed a few days. In terms of times by best 5k time during this time was 27.22 which I was pretty pleased with considering it was on just one of my routes from home.

September - October

During this time I picked up an Achilles injury which stopped my running for 6 weeks.  Luckily I remembered all the exercises my physio gave me to do when I had the same thing in 2017.  So wasn't out for as long as I could have been.  Also I was able to walk still so still manged to get out pretty much everyday.

November - December

Back up and running again and got straight back into the routine of running 3-4 times a week.  At the start of December I realised I could potentially get to 100 (not) parkruns by the end of the year so that became the aim.  As I write this I am on 99 so pretty confident I'll achieve this in the next few days.  During this period my times peaked at just below 29 minutes. I think the reason I am slightly slower is because during my injury I did put on a stone which I now cant seem to get rid of.  Well there is a target for next year.

Another positive to take from the year was that I have only taken 1 sick day from work and that was back in March.  I usually have to take many more than that and I think it just shows how easy it is to pick up bugs on commutes and how much of a difference working from home makes.

I've been missing my running buddies both at Rouken Glen and Queen's/Pollok parkruns and hopefully next year parkrun can start up again and normal service will resume.  At the same time strava has been great so I can at least stay connected at a distance.

I'll do another post on my stats for the year.........once I get to 100 :-P

March parkrun

Well this was to be a month unlike any other.  I can't remember the last time I went a whole month without running a parkrun but it must have been at least a few years ago.  But I feel the need to document for future why exactly I didn't run a parkrun this month.  

07/03 - I did go to Queen's parkrun as a volunteer where I marshalled.  Corona virus was starting to gather pace in the UK but the only advice at this stage was to wash your hands.  So token sorting meant bringing hand sanitizer and using it before and after sorting.  This was to be my last time attending a 5k parkrun and the last time volunteering at juniors the following day for the foreseeable future.  Looking back I am glad I spent the last 5 weeks at Queen's.  I have travelled a lot last year with parkrun but its nice to get into a routine of going to your home one.

14/03 - Parkrun was still on this weekend but corona virus was gathering even more pace and as well as washing your hands the advice was to basically not go near people or social distancing as its called now. This meant widened funnels.  Holding your barcodes and tokens when getting them scanned instead of giving them to the barcode scanners.  Or in my case the advice was if you feel unwell at all to stay away from parkrun. I didn't have corona virus symptoms but I wasn't feeling great so parkruns were advising just to stay away so that is what I did.

21/03 - This was expected.  But this was the first week where parkruns closed across the UK for 2 weeks which is now extended to the end of April.  They did a big quiz on Saturday morning to replace it. Which to be fair to the parkrun team was good.

28/03 - Then on the Monday after the last meant to be parkrun lockdown was announced. Only allowed out for one piece of exercise a day which is from where you are staying and one food trip a day.

All in the space of a month. Crazy times.  

February parkruns

2/2/20 - First up this month was Fort William parkrun.  To me this is the hardest parkrun in Scotland to get to since you can't get public transport to it in the morning and its 6 miles from Fort William town centre.  So, when my Mum and Dad agreed to doing our winter break there, we did it over the weekend so I could get the parkrun in too. To be honest I was preparing for it to be cancelled due to the time of year and really saw this as a holiday and if parkrun was on it would be a bonus.

We got to the Nevis range car park at 9am and it was chucking it down.  So, we stayed in the car till about 9.20 then headed over to the start.  Got chatting to a few folks and then we were off down the forest track.  It's a 1 loop course. With the first half on forest track and then coming back on mainly trails.   The first half is mainly downhill with the second half mainly uphill.  The field did spread out very quickly and although especially in the second half there wasn’t much space to overtake. Because the field was smallish this wasn’t a problem.  On a small section of the forest track on the way back someone overtook me, and they absolutely flew past. He was wearing a ben Nevis race t-shirt and I was half thinking it could be Findlay Wild who has won the Ben Nevis race for the last 10 years and lives up there.  I thought he must be on his own run rather than parkrun being where I was in the field.  So I checked Strava when I got home and checked flybys and sure enough it was him. He started 15 minutes late and still finished before me! He took just over 17 minutes whereas I was just over 33.  I thought at the end of it that this was one of the toughest parkruns I have done. Just because all the hard work is done in the second half.  But it is a very good course and I did enjoy it.

9/2/20 - Number checker at Queens

15/02 - For my final 3 runs of the month I went to Queen's each time.  And for each one I had three different approaches where I ended up getting faster each time.  For the 15th I ran there and back on top of the parkrun, adding up to 6 miles. On the way there I actually started walking after a mile, then I met Joe and we ran the rest of the way to the park.  When the run started, I was walking after the second hill on the first lap and was run/walking the rest of the way.  So that run I was 36 minutes.

22/02 - Next up I decided for the first time just to drive to Queen's to save my energy for the run.  This time I started a bit faster as for the first part I was running with Stuart and Kirsty. I think I pushed the pace a bit on the first lap, then Stuart went ahead, and I pulled away from Kirsty about half way through the first lap.  Then the second lap I had to start my run/walk for the hills and Kirsty overtook me.  But I ended up finishing 2 minutes faster than the previous week finishing in 34 minutes.

29/02 - Then yesterday I drove to the park again and decided to start slower.  This worked wonders and I managed to run the whole way round and finished this one in 33 minutes.

This year so far, I have only managed one sub 30 minute run and that was at Linwood.  I think it does reflect that apart from Linwood I have been doing hilly courses.  Also, my times for these hilly courses were getting worse up until the 22nd. But I don’t think that is a reflection on my fitness. It’s more like a learning curve as to learning what I can do to achieve better times at the moment.  

My challenge of running an average of sub 30 average parkrun throughout the year seems impossible right now unless I really get my act together but at the same time, I'm not going to run flatter parkruns deliberately just to achieve it.  Hopefully though I'll get under 30 at Queen's this year. That is my big aim which I feel is doable with a few months of good training.

January parkruns

Happy new year!

To kick off the year it was parkrun double time.  I decided not to run 2 parkruns this year as I didn't think I was fit enough to do 2 back to back.  So instead I volunteered at Pollok and if I had enough time nip across to Tollcross and run there. So I was dressed ready to run and I pointed the car in the right direction to get to Tollcross. But I didnt know what time I would get away from Pollok so it was just wait and see.

Pollok was a bit quieter on new years day compared to Christmas day. I think the fact that Victoria and Strathclyde had early kick offs too helped. Where as on Christmas day these 2 were off.  Normally in my blog I go through I few people I either ran with or chatted with. But this was no normal day.  So many folk I knew and also quite a few who I met for the first time.  Being funnel manager for the day also meant I got to greet people as they just finished the run which was fun.  The last runner came in just over 40 minutes and the other funnel manager kindly took my marshal vest and I jogged to the car realising I should make it to Tollcross easy.

And I did with 15 minutes to spare.  Again Tollcross was full of people I knew. Some were doing the double and others who opted for a lie in and just did Tollcross. I say "Just" but its really a challenge even on its own!  There was over 400 people there today and I think it was a record for them.  I started a wee bit further back so took a bit of time to get going but I felt good all the way round and was picking up the pace just finishing in over 30 minutes.

The first Saturday of the year - the 4th - I woke up feeling rotten so just decided to leave parkrun today.

The next Saturday - the 11th - I was back on top of things again.  Although today was back to checking which parkruns were on as it was torrential rain.  I was wanting to go to Pollok rather than Queen's in this type of weather. Because in my mind I still cant bring myself to drive to Queen's as its just too close. But at the same time I'd rather not run to it then be hanging about in that weather before it starts.  Where as Pollok being a bit further away, I can drive too without feeling guilty and also swing by the shops on the way back and get food.

So when Pollok announced it was on I headed there.  The rain was coming down hard. But I found the worst of it was actually walking to the start.  It was a lot quieter than usual too so no issues finding my pace at the start.  There were a few big puddles which were unavoidable but fun to run through at the same time.  It was one of those days I thought I was running faster than I was but still 31 minutes isnt too bad this early on in the year.

The next Saturday was my birthday run - the 18th.  Again this was a dodgy weather day but this time it was unexpected.  I had it planned to go to Queen's today and meet up with Brian and a few others.  I woke up at 8.30 thinking I had till 9 to get ready.  Then I find out that half the parkruns, including Queen's are called off due to black ice. So it was off to trusty Tollcross who were running their 4 lap alternative course.  There is no doubting this is a tough course but I was just pleased it was on.  I made it round in 33 minutes but I would say I wasnt pushing it maybe as hard as I could have.

25th and the final parkrun of the month I headed to Linwood with my brother and his family.  Ken has been running well at the moment so I wasnt surprised when he took off at the start.  I was expecting about 30 minutes today but I was surprised how well I was feeling after the first lap, so I gradually increaesed the pace over the 2nd lap and found myself picking off a lot of people. Till the final straight where I felt good enough to sprint for home.  I was still surprised and happy to dip below 29 minutes - 28.55.

A lot of work to do if I want to get below a 30 minute average parkrun time this year but its still early days. I did 4/6 parkruns available so also a decent enough start.  I had planned to go to Queen's more this month and ended up not going there at all.  Hopefully get back there next month :-)