Training: Heaton Park & the quayside

The 2023 stretch goals I made for myself back at the end of July have been looking like a bit much of a stretch recently. The 'new parkruns' goal is being scuppered by the distances I now need to travel. The 3-times-a-week goal has been set back massively by two or three weeks of very little running in holiday season. Pulling it back from that deficit is going to take some doing, especially given that I very rarely manage more than 3 runs a week. But at least the fortnightly 7.5km runs goal is feeling achievable.

In fact, longer runs are becoming more of a focus for me, full-stop. 7.5km runs don't take that much longer than a 5km run when you factor in the fixed cost of warm-up, warm-down and shower time. They also mean that when I come to do parkruns, they feel a bit shorter than they used to; and I'm hoping that means I'll feel able to run them faster. Beyond that, I'm also itching to get myself signed up for another 10K race — specifically the North Tyneside 10K — and I want that distance to feel comfortable ...or even easy.

The pavilion in Heaton Park, with the old, neglected bowling green in front of it

All of which is a very long-winded way of introducing the fact that I did my second run over 7.5km in 4 days today. And notched up a total of 22.5km in 3 runs over those 4 days. Today's route was meant to be a case of about 4km outbound through Heaton Park, then turn around and just head back to work, but it didn't quite turn out that way.

The remains of the old windmill in Heaton Park

As I approached the far end of Heaton Park and could see the Armstrong Bridge just ahead, I turned back, not wanting to be tempted to continue over it and back into town through depressing traffic. And I'd only done about 3.5km at that point, so I had to extend the route back. And that I did by heading down to the quayside from Shieldfield and Battlefield. By the time I'd followed the Tyne up to the guildhall, 7.5km was in the bag. Yeah, I know it's a bit of a cheat to finish at a lower altitude than I started, but... whatever.

Looking up the cattle run at Heaton Park

Pacewise, I didn't set the (virtual) timing sheets alight. Overall, it was a steady 5:33/km pace, but with the 4th kilometre being particularly slow. That was probably due to the number of steps and steep slopes I descended on the way down into Jesmond Vale from the Cradlewell Bypass. Steps always ruin your pace, whether going up or down. From that low point, however, it was negative splits all the way back to work. Not a single kilometre under the 5:00 mark, mind.

Looking ahead, there'll be no parkrun this weekend, as we're off to the in-laws again. But bring on next week and some more longer running.