Some more progress

For the last few weeks I've only been running once and if I'm lucky twice a week. I last blogged about the upcoming handicap run.

I ran 26'59 against a best of 25'47 last year. Went for a run today and clocked 25'29 and had plenty in the tank (or so I think), so quite pleased with that. 1'30 improvement on last time and quicker than last year by '16, so I've got to be looking sub 25 minutes. I'll try and do that this week and see how I feel at the end.

Progress

Just under a year ago I ran the route below for the first time(clocked 29'42), ran it a few days later (29'36) and then in a time trial with the club (25'47). I know the run is coming up again soon so I thought I'd give it a go. Didn't push it as we have a time trial on Wednesday and just to gauge where I was at...clocked 26'59. I'll run it later in the week and pick it up again. So if I measure it against a year ago, I'm almost 3 minutes quicker. If I can be 3 minutes quicker on the time trial itself I'll be really happy.

New personal best

I regularly run a 3.43 mile (5.52km) route from my house, it fits my routine. But for a while I've been stuck at just over 26 minutes. 26'09 to be precise. Even allowing for waiting for traffic on one of the 4 road crossings I was still slower than I thought I should be on this run.

Today was good though - 8am Saturday morning. Virtually no traffic so I hardly had to cut my pace to cross the roads at all. I made an effort to get the pace up early and dig in to keep it up if I could. Got home in 24'48. Really pleased. 1'21 off my previous best and even allowing for the lack of traffic that was a big improvement. But it's still over 7minute miles and I think I can do better than that.

If I turned that into a 5km race it would be over a minute slower than my PB. Time to raise my sights a bit

Another personal best

A week or so ago at the club we had a time trial and ran a measured 5k. I came in at 21'11 which is another 10 seconds off my personal best. It was a bit tougher course too, so I'm pleased. Sub 21 minutes is my next goal.

See the route here

Personal Best

I ran in the Telford Town Centre 5k tonight and managed a new personal best. Two months ago I ran in the Park Hall 5k and managed 22'24, tonight I managed to knock a minute off that with 21'21. It was quite quick with a fast downhill section to begin with, this had the inverse effect of making me slow down a bit because I didn't want to run out of steam.

Still, I was pleased with the time because it shows I'm progressing and that's what matters. So lets see if I can keep that progress up.

Getting quicker

This run has become my stock run at the moment. It takes me half an hour on a slow day, so is manageable with work and family. But it also offers a nice opportunity to run by the river, and put in some quick times if I want. I'm trying to push myself on this run at least once a week - yesterday I managed 26' 08. Those 8seconds were a bit disappointing, because it would be nice to get to a 25min, but a sub 25min for 3.43miles is what I'm aiming for.

Getting back into the groove

So it's a while since the marathon now (about 6 weeks) and I'm just beginning to get back into the running groove. I've done a couple of club runs but mostly I've been jogging this 3.43 mile route.
I've felt various aches and pains but I've managed these times:

1. 29' 36
2. 30' 17
3. 30' 31

Which is OK but I need to push myself a bit more and pick the speed up. Tonight I ran in a 5k race at Park Hall, Oswestry and finished in a time of 22' 24. I'm reasonably pleased as I twice had to do up my laces and finished with plenty in the tank. Good to be back on the road