The #runsub17 series of blogs is brought to you with the kind support of D-Line Cable Management.
Having had that rare drink at the weekend, I was wary that traditionally I always struggle to run for at least a few days. This observation dates back to my a was early 20s. It’s the main reason that I stopped drinking prior to the run across the USA. And by “prior” I mean 3 years prior.
Having had that rare drink at the weekend, I was wary that traditionally I always struggle to run for at least a few days. This observation dates back to my a was early 20s. It’s the main reason that I stopped drinking prior to the run across the USA. And by “prior” I mean 3 years prior.
The first run of the week was a 5k effort back to my car. I parked up at Northumberland Park, got the Metro to work and then ran back.
I enjoyed that first run so much, that I repeated it on Tuesday, Wednesday and also on Thursday.
My aim this week was to try and set a pace and stick to it for every mile. So far, during #runsub17, I’ve mostly just been trying to “get round”. Only on a couple of occasions have I felt like going all out.
I set the virtual training partner on my watch on Monday to 00:11:40 per mile. Regular runners will no doubt read that and think it’s almost a walking pace. It definitely isn’t when you are carrying 18.5 stones. I was quite delighted to finish the 5k in 00:36:19 which works out at 00:11:42 per mile.
I set the same pace on Tuesday for the same route and finished just slightly quicker in 00:36:02. That’s only 3 seconds per mile quicker than the planned pace.
Wednesday’s 5k was 00:36:20 and arguably felt the most comfortable. Again, it was only a few seconds away from the planned pace.
I dropped my planned pace on Thursday, only by 10 seconds per mile, to 11:30. I, again, felt very comfortable but ran at the required pace to get round in 00:35:44.
It had been a good week proving that I could control my pace. It's a pace that is nowhere near what is required for #runsub17 to be a success but it's a start. 6 weeks ago, following Steve Medd's advice, I set out to run "a minimum of 3 times a week of at least 3 or 4 miles each time". I've achieved that most weeks, I'm glad to say.
To say that there is room for improvement is an understatement. I need to improve on nutrition, discipline, consistency, volume of miles, hydration and variety of sessions.
Over the next 8 weeks, I'll be adding more weekly miles. Now that I have a bike I'll be building that into my schedule too.
