Running On Empty

Two runs for the price of one in this blog post. That probably means I'm getting lazy with the write-ups. 😉 Yesterday saw me force myself out for a run to Ouseburn and back. Well, to the Free Trade Inn (highly recommended) and then back over the Byker Bridge. I never really got down into Ouseburn itself. The run nearly didn't happen, what with the old thing of feeling the pressure of work deadlines, over-preparing for meetings out of nerves, and ending up skipping lunch. Had one of my colleagues not asked whether I was going out for a run, I might've quietly skipped it altogether. And then hated myself for not keeping up with the twice-between-parkruns schedule. Anyway, I got out. I'd hoped I would have time to do a longer, slower run (as recommended by Mark Lewis as a way of making 5k easier and faster), but I'd prevaricated so much before finally getting out of my chair at work that around 5k was the most I could really afford. In the end, it was just 4.5k bef

 Let's give it the old inverted pyramid : Got a time of 26:47 That's my worst here (but only by a second) It was genuinely freezing (-1°C) Age grade of 54.2% In the top 50% of men (for the first time in a while) Legs felt weaker than lungs Didn't walk I shouldn't need to put that last one on the list, but after last week, it feels like a relief. 😊 Customary shot of the Newbiggin seafront, this time with added frost Overall, I'm okay  but definitely not ecstatic with the result. Newbiggin's where my current parkrun PB lies, so it's a bit much to expect to improve on that right now, but I was hoping for better — especially given how good yesterday's run felt. Never mind. 😐 Other things to note: Age grade . My grade today was better than my one-second faster time, courtesy of turning 48; pleased it's back in the 54's too Milestones . There were some interesting ones today. One person was doing their 600th(!) parkrun while someone el

Whooooah there, steady on. Enjoying myself? While running? Surely some mistake. Anyway, today was my last chance to get a second inter-parkrun run in and I was lucky that I had no lunchtime meetings, so I went for it. Having done Leazes Park on Wednesday, I figured I'd had for the other attainable park today: Exhibition Park. (I really don't count the City Stadium as a park.) Looking across the frozen lake in Exhibition Park at the Wylam Brewery building It's a little bit further from the office than Leazes, but I really didn't fancy the wind whistling down the Tyne again. Plus, heading north means I'm not giving myself a lazy downhill at the start of the run and I get to enjoy a downhill finish as I return to work. So, I headed out of the office and immediately turned down Worswick Street... which is downhill. 🤦 That downhill was short-lived mind and I soon made up for it as I headed back up past the Laing Art Gallery towards the Civic Centre and the

Ok, that title's an outrageous lie. With wind-chill , it was -1 or -2, but the actual temperature was above zero. Still, there was a patchy covering of snow and ice on the ground, which shows it was pretty damned cold. An actual photo taken by me, for once; seagulls aplenty stood on the frozen lake This run was another lunchtime affair from the office. Today, I chose to eschew the quayside (and its piercing winds) in favour of a more urban and tree lined route. In fact, I was so bloody cold at the start of the run that I chose a slightly cheeky route through the malls of Eldon Square and Eldon Garden to get me up towards Leazes Park in the warmth. And that completely threw out the GPS tracking, of course, so I don't really know the overall length of the run. That wasn't helped by pausing the run as I ducked into John Lewis for a click-and-collect on the way back either. I'd guess the total was a little over 4k in the end. 🤷‍♂️ At the start of the run, I'

Yesterday's parkrun was an odd one. Continuing my recent theme of returning to tarmac-based parkruns for the sake of not ruining my trainers with mud, I went back to Saltwell Park in Gateshead. It was a bit of a rollercoaster, and not just because of the ups and downs on the course. Firstly, I had to walk for the first time ever on a parkrun (ignoring the congested starts). Not only that, it was at the very last corner; I had maybe just 150m left to go. 😧 Despite this, I got a time of 27:11, which was a new Gateshead PB for me (beating my previous run of 27:28). 😲 Photo of Saltwell Park's lake, blatantly 'borrowed' from the BBC So, I'm not too despondent about having to walk, not least cos I've not yet said why I had to walk. There's no way to dress this up that will make it any less gross, so I'll just say it: I very suddenly got the intense feeling I was going to wee and/or crap myself if I took another running stride. I had to stop, just to concen

I am such a hypocrite. Two identical runs, a mere two days apart. So much for variety. So what was different this time? First, I remembered my Brooks trainers. Did they make a difference? Not really, but they were more comfortable, so I guess that's a win. Second, the weather was worse; a lot worse. With a gale blowing down the Tyne, it was perishing! While I got used to the cold after about 5 minutes, the strength of the wind while running upriver was such that I had to lean into it at times — and that showed in my 2nd kilometre pace. Mind, it felt like I was being carried on the way back. Oh, and it starting tipping it down a few minutes from the end too. Delightful. Third... actually, there isn't a third. The rest was identical. Same route, same distance, same time (as Monday). So by the time I'm back to parkrun on Saturday, I once again won't have done another 5K, which could bite me.

After Saturday's disappointment at Leazes Park , I was keen to knuckle down and get on with getting faster again. So, while I managed to fit in less than 20 minutes today, at least I got back out there. The usual Google Fit report: 3.42km in 17:45, earning 34 heart points I wasn't really expecting to make it out at lunchtime and consequently forgot to even pack my running shoes when I headed to the office. Luckily, I still use my old Nike RunAllDay trainers for everyday use, so I ran in them instead. The start of the route was an easy downhill to the quayside and then I ran upriver, past the Copthorne Hotel. I had a meeting to get back for, so decided to turn back as soon as my Google Fit told me I'd done 10 minutes. And given I wasn't going to run back up Dean Street, that meant my run finished after 17½ minutes. So, downhill-followed-by-flat gave me a chance to try to increase the pace. Which I guess I did, but not as much as I'd hoped. As I ran, Google announced

Ugh. This was not a good run for me, so let's cut to the chase: my time was 27:38. That compares pretty unfavourably to both my first run here (26:16) in July and my freedom run here (25:39) in October. Right now, I'm feeling pretty glum about it all. I miss the days when I could aim for a PB every time I went out. Photo of the birdlife at Leazes Park, courtesy of Saleem Shahid on Flickr Not sure what else to write today. Weather-wise, it was 10°C and raining constantly, which was actually ok for running. The wet ground did mean that I avoided overtaking people early on, as I didn't want to ruin my new shoes on the muddy grass at the sides of the path. In contrast to my previous parkrun here, I also started very close to the back of the field, which perhaps says something about my mental state heading into this. It took, by my counting, about 12 seconds to cross the start line. And I very nearly didn't bother attending at all; I'd had a poor night's sleep and

So, I did it! Made it to two parkruns on consecutive days! With the latter on New Year's Day. And do I get any achievements for it in the 5K parkrunner app ? Do I hell. 😂 (There is an achievement for doing Christmas Day and one for doing both Christmas Day and New Year's Day, fwiw. But not New Year's Day by itself. Bah.) Anyway, today it was back to Newbiggin by the Sea: Had I arrived earlier, I'd have taken a better photo of the sun over the sea (rather than a car park) Looking around at the options I had for non-muddy parkruns near me, it had looked like it was a toss-up between Blyth and Newbiggin, so I went with the latter for a couple of reasons: I'd hate to do too many at the same venue too close together and I last did Blyth on Christmas Eve My parkrun PB was achieved at Newbiggin, so where better to gauge how close I am to my ultimate pace? Speaking of pace, my time today was 26:46, which is 39s slower than my best. So, that's quite a bit off the pace