Training: a necessary 5K

Another week where I've made it out for only one proper run instead of three (the walked parkrun doesn't count), but at least I'm still doing it. We'll overlook the fact I almost forgot to go for a run while sitting at my desk. 👀

As I did a few stretches in the car park before the start, I contemplated where I might run and came to the conclusion that at least the first kilometre in any direction from the office was going to feel grim. I hate routine in my runs. I even began to wonder whether this would be the thing that ultimately killed running for me. Would I give it up out of nothing but boredom?

Anyway, I figured I'd just leave the building and decide my route at every corner or junction at which I arrived. 100% spontaneity in the midst of crushing familiarity. In the end, that took me along New Bridge Street and then through Shield field and up past Jesmond Metro. By that time, I'd decided most of the rest of the route based on how long I wanted to be out of the office; by the time I got to Willi's, all I had time for was a direct line back to the office.

Shieldfield, courtesy of Colin on Flickr

I never really heard what pace I was doing over the traffic noise, but pace wasn't the key today; it was more about simply being active. And yeah, it was a pretty flat route, but I don't feel up to a hilly one at the moment. I just want to enjoy the runs, not push myself to the max. In the end, looking back at Google Fit, it seems I averaged about 5:30/km; that's if I ignore the weirdly anomalous 4:53/km final kilometre, which was probably down to the GPS struggling. I'm happy with 5:30/km right now. I'm less happy when I work out that that means a 27:30 5K pace, but for some reason I feel better about it as a per-km pace. 🤷

Next run should be my 50th parkrun this Saturday. I've always thought of like to go back to Chopwell Wood for my 50th, just as I did for my 25th, but I'm not sure I can face the disappointment as I struggle with the hills. Instead, I'm looking back through my parkrun history for venues I've attended only once. South Shields falls into that category. That's by far the most attractive once-only venue on my list, but the other options include Ashington (nice to be in woodland), Windy Nook (good finish position?), Druridge Bay (chance for venue PB and very outdoors), and Denton Dene (chance to meet a former colleague). Or maybe I could break my duck at Durham. Priority #1 though is just to get out and do one. 🤞

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Midweek: Weetslade Colliery fantasy parkrun

Image
Indulge me for a moment. There was a time, back in my early-to-mid 20s, that I spent a very large chunk of my spare time on the computer, playing and making mods (and modding tools) for the Geoff Crammond Grand Prix games. While I had practically  zero social life (at least, in meatspace), I still look back on that time fondly as the most intensely creative period of my life. Turns out I even made car livery textures. Pleased with the rear wing of the Viz car! 😂 The thing I most enjoyed doing was imagining and creating 'fantasy' tracks. That is, purely imaginary circuits that you could then race. Which brings me onto this post and run. In recent weeks, I've been playing around with the idea of "If I could create my own parkrun course, where would I do it?" . Firing up onthegomap.com , finding local parks, and mapping out a 5K course has given me a feeling a bit like making F1 tracks back in the day. And tonight was my first run on one of the courses I've pu
Read more

Parkrun #25: Chopwell Wood

Image
Tell me... can you feel the milestone? Ohhhh yes. TWENTY-FIVE! T-shirt incoming! 😁 Aaaanyway... back to the run. First time at Chopwell Wood and it was HARD . A few months back, I watched a YouTube video of some guy doing this course and... well, it didn't look too hard. He talked through the fact there were uphill sections, but in all honesty, they looked pretty easy. In hindsight, maybe it was just that they were easy for him and the camera wasn't showing the true extent of the hills. (He got a time of 23:50, btw. 😲) Whatever, it was definitely hard for me . Possibly the hardest one I've done, in fact. The walk to the start from the car park (seen above) was pretty typical of the trails we'd run: mostly gravel and small stones bedded nicely into mud. Nothing too squelchy, so mostly a decent running surface, though there were a few sections with larger, more rubble-like stones, but mostly smooth ones. Prior to turning up, I'd been a bit
Read more

5 months in with my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 22 shoes

Image
Summary : my Brooks trainers have worked miracles in the last 5 months and I couldn't be happier with them. Well, maybe if they'd been cheaper. 😉 And maybe a bit lighter. About 6 months ago, I splashed out a small fortune on the most expensive trainers I've ever bought. It was purely in the hope that they'd help with the pain I felt in my feet during and after running on even slightly uneven surfaces. That pain had made life outside of runs a bit miserable, with me unable to go around the house in stocking feet. After a run like that on the Town Moor, with its stony tracks, it could take months for my feet to get back close to normality. Even just walking on those surfaces in my old shoes caused pain. This was seriously limiting where I could run too. It was time to try something new, especially as my Nike Runallday were starting to feel like they'd suddenly lost a lot of their cushioning. In the end, I ventured into Start Fitness in Newcastle for gait analysis a
Read more