This week has been a bit up and down running wise (although mostly up). I spent some moneys on Monday signing up for two races in the Edinburgh Marathon Festival: I'm doing the 10k with a lovely friend from my undergrad days, and then slightly madly decided I would also sign up for the half! The intention is to take the 10k at a reasonably slow pace, and save some energy to belt out the half - then again, I don't have to belt out too hard to beat my previous PB (just run it all in fact).
I then turned my Monday run to the shops into a tempo session I'd picked up from the Women's Running website - doing fast 1km reps interspersed with walk breaks - which I REALLY enjoyed and am going to keep repeating/extending. My first rep was at 8.55 min/mile and the second at 8:30 - which got me wondering whether I could keep a faster pace going for longer, and I decided to try and get my long run in on Thursday, so I could test my fitness out at parkrun (which I've not run in AGES).
Thursday came along, and after a rather tedious morning having been called to court as a witness (and sitting for 3 hours before the charge was dropped for lack of evidence!), I was quite glad to be heading out into the fresh air. My plan called for 11 miles, but I also wanted to run 4.5 of those with a choir friend - so I decided to run the EMF 10k course, and then to our meeting point to get up to the necessary mileage. The course is actually quite hilly, with Arthur's Seat (the long climb) near the beginning, a short sharp hill into Duddingston about 6k in, another rotten (short) steep bit up from the Innocent Railway path at about 8.5k, and then a final wee hill up the the 9k-ish point before heading down to the finish. I had set out to take it quite easily because of needing to get the extra in, but I have to admit the CBAs got me a little, and I walked rather more than I really needed to. The final 4.5 miles with my friend were at a much better slow pace, and flew by whilst chatting about life, the universe, and everything - we even survived a short sharp hail storm! I did call a wee walk break (by which point I was at about 9 miles) but it was only 100 metres and we set off again.
So this morning I got myself out of bed - having had a very early night after a crazy day in the shop - and toddled off on the number 41 bus - I could practically name it the parkrun bus given the percentage of passengers that were runners! My intention was to run at a reasonably steady pace and see if I could get a course PB on the training I've done over the Jantastic competition.
Arrived at the Cramond prom, and dropped my wee carrier bag off on the 'stuff' fence - before testing out the start for slippy/icy conditions which the course can be prone to in bad weather. This morning wasn't too bad, and I did some warming up before heading to the loos - where for the first time ever I encountered a queue! The Edinburgh parkrun has grown a hell of a lot , with 524 runners compared to 325 the last time I ran, and was nice to see so many people out on a Saturday morning. Bumped into the wife of a colleague from my last workplace - and was nice to have a chat to while away the last moments before the start. Had headphone issues this morning, as I couldn't find one pair, and the one I had found had been slightly bunny-nibbled - which might have been perfect as she'd bitten off one earbud - but the other cable went wrong as soon as I started running rather than walking. There went my most reliable pacer (my playlist!)
Decided to hum one of the pieces I often 'fast' run to in my head as we started, and set off at a comfortable but quickish pace based purely one my ability to breathe - checked my watch at the first km mark and I was at 5:55/km pace - with a reasonable chance at the course PB I was after. I also felt like I could keep it up, which was one of the most important things. Kept humming and concentrating on the breath between each marker (trying not too look at my watch too much) until the last km where I tried to up the pace a wee fraction - and then managed a bit of a sprint finish - although I could possibly have managed a bit more. The lovely lady I had been chatting to at the beginning had waited for me and was cheering me on at the finish which was AWESOME!!!! Especially as she'd beaten me by quite a bit, so had been standing around in the cold waiting.
Bit of a kerfuffle at the funnel - which was about 4 times the length it should have been - we had a funnel jumper in front of us, and the two of us who crossed the line almost together were a little confused as to whether we should keep going or wait for marshals. The marshal was a bit short with us tbh, considering we were just waiting on instructions, but I think he was annoyed with the jumper and people were coming in quite steadily behind us. I stopped my watch in the funnel (having started it a tad early) and I was 2 seconds off my all time PB from South Manchester LAST New Year - but I had to wait for the text to find out my official time. Having run it quite steady rather than all out, I still had enough in the tank for a sprint finish (probably could have managed a bit more tbh). And I didn't feel too nackered at the end - so a good balanced effort with pretty even splits according to the Garmin.
At the return bus stop, I got chatting to three girls who were asking for instructions into town - from Cambridge, Lincoln, and Manchester (originally from Stockport near me!). The girl from Cambridge had underestimated the weather, so I lent her my spare jumper while we were waiting - and this turned into an awesome chat on the way back as we were heading to the same bus stop. It's nice to get the parkrun camaraderie when so often in Edinburgh runners blank you when you are out running.
Results came through just as I got back to the house an hour and a half after finishing (this is why I don't get up on my one free day to go out to the front very often!).
******* I GOT A PB !!!!!!!!!!!!! *******
Not only did I knock 22 seconds off my PB from South Manchester (when I ended feeling ROUGH and nackered beyond belief) I took 3 mins 57 off my previous record from Edinburgh. And, on top of that my run today marked my last Febulous run, and finished me off one 100% for the month. Totally flying and had to give Grandad a ring at the end (although, typically was out, so I had to leave a message). Much as 5k is hardly 14 miles, I hope that being able to run 9:20/mile splits a month out from Coniston, means that with the extra training I can hit my target 10:00/mile for race day. One can only hope.
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