Running On Empty

It's been a few weeks since the last post here, so well overdue — and you'd expect I've got loads to report on. But... not really. What stands out? A failed purchase of a bargain running watch, a series of multi-day sinus headaches that got in the way, continuing concern about my left knee, and not a single parkrun. On the up side, the kids continue to provide me with opportunities to combine summer holiday childcare with exercise as they go on bike rides. Even if it's never at a sustained 5K pace, it's stopping me failing into a habit of complete inactivity. We even managed to find a part of Gosforth Park that I'd not seen before and it was probably the nicest bit I've been in. Oh, and as you can tell from the photo, the weather has been glorious, in the low 20s most of the time. Not an ideal temperature for running, but just lovely in general. Thankfully it's not too tiring when you're running 2 minutes per kilometre away from your usu

Since last Monday's lunchtime run, it's been a bit uneven in terms of my running. And it's probably not worthy of much discussion, so here's a bullet list: Didn't quite make it 3 Friday mornings in a row that I ran into work, but this time it was only because I was late leaving the house (8:20am) and I had a unusually early meeting to attend. So, while it saved me only about 7 minutes in the end, I caught the bus for the first 3 kilometres of my run into work. Ended up doing about 4.6km in a smidge under 25 minutes, with Matthew Bank thrown in. Saturday saw me miss parkrun out of choice for the first time in a couple of months. Partly down to the prospect of running in the heat, but mainly down to us having other things to do as a family. That afternoon, however, I did jog alongside the kids for a gentle 3K as they rode their bikes around a local loop. And later that evening, I did almost 6km in 31 minutes as the sun went down. So, plenty of action still. Sunday sa

Had a slightly more relaxed day at work today (after last week's progress reviews), including a lunchtime without meetings, so went out for a run. Was caught completely by surprise by the fact it was warm and sunny outside — at the same time! And boy did I sweat. 🥵 Actually, I was suffering as soon as I started. I really wasn't full of bounce today, puffing and panting right from the start, even though I was taking it easy. My route took me up to Leazes Park via the back entrance on Barrack Road, aiming to spend a bit of time among greenery. After getting there and then doing a single lap of the parkrun course, however, I realised that that alone would see me hit almost 5K if I returned to the office there and then. More pressingly, I was already really struggling with the heat and decided I needed to stop doing uphill sections or I'd collapse! Well, I was getting a headache anyway. One little loop, one big loop. Not the fastest ever, but that's fine. So I ducked back

Another Saturday, another attempt to tick off one of the 27-minute-plus venues on my parkrun list. I'd had 3 previous goes at the Gateshead run and it feels slightly surprising that all 3 of them had been over 27 minutes. It doesn't feel like it should be that hard a parkrun... until you're doing it. And then the run up the slope from the lake kills you on all 3 of the laps you do it. Well, make that all 4 laps, as you do the climb up from the lake on the opposite-direction first of four laps too. Yeah, it's an unusual lap setup here. Saltwell Towers in the rain; pity the parkrun course doesn't go around this place On my previous visits, my times had been: 27:28 on 17 Sep 2022 27:11 on 14 Jan 2023 27:01 on 11 Mar 2023 So, clear if somewhat slow improvement. And today? 26:21. 🥳 It probably helped that, in hindsight, I started a little closer to the front than my times merited, though it wasn't like I was swamped . I did overtake a good number of people too.

Another run into work on the morning after a games night, but this time a slightly different route. Call me weak if you will, but I chose to avoid the slog of Matthew Bank today, heading up past South Gosforth metro station from Haddrick's Mill instead. Don't get me wrong, that's still an uphill section, but at least it was a different uphill and probably not as severe or prolonged as Matthew Bank. The difference to the usual route was between the 3km and 5km marks In terms of length, it was allegedly very slightly longer than the usual route, but by the time I arrived at the office, the difference was well within Google Fit's margin of error for the usual route. And the pace? A total time of 42:37 for 7.75km averaged out at 5:30/km. Slower than both last week's Pret run (5:21/km) and the run to work before that (5:18/km), but so be it. There were times on the run today where I knew I must be going more slowly than usual as I wasn't even having to manage the

Now that I've semi-committed myself to aiming for the "every local parkrun under 27 minutes" goal, it was time to return to one of the 5 local venues where I've yet to do that. And Windy Nook had my slowest time of the lot, at 27:48. The start line at Windy Nook, which was looking lovely today When I'd registered that time, I was delighted with it, as I'd heard Windy Nook was possibly the toughest course in the area. I'd been expecting a time worse than my 28½ minutes at Jesmond Dene. I also came away thinking the course wasn't as hilly as reputed. In hindsight, I probably went into today's run a bit complacent as a result. And I found it HARD today. 🥵 Way more gradients than I'd remembered. Even the bits I'd remembered as roughly flat were uphill; it's just that they led to steeper sections. Google Fit's usual poor choice of Y axis scaling fails to show off the hills here 👀 I probably didn't help myse