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Saturday was my 100th Park Run!!! I think it is fair to say that were it not for Park Run I would not currently be training for the London Marathon. For the uninitiated Park Run is a weekly 5km run in a park. It now runs in numerous parks in the UK and a surprising number world-wide. While it is keen to stress that it is a run not a race - it gives you personal timings, and position overall (at least at the park you ran) and by gender and age. Since there is nothing like points and prizes (or, it would seem, points anyway) for motivating me, Park Run is more or less single-handedly responsible for getting my 5km time down from around 33 minutes to under 23 minutes. The people I've met through park run, both as a runner and as a volunteer, are responsible for getting me into the larger slightly more competitive races and hence the London Marathon. Park Run is a big organisation and these days there are smaller more personal weekly runs you can get involved with, but my local Park Run at least is friendly, welcoming, unpretentious, low commitment and generally a very pleasant experience (well apart from the extensive puddles which are present about 6 months of the year and can lead to an encounter with the "Ditch of Doom" if you stray too far from the centre of the path). The training plan recommended a 25 minute Hill Run on Saturday - Manchester not being over-endowed with hills I was happy to substitute that for my 100th Park Run. At some point I will get a T-shirt commemorating the fact but since Park Run is perenially behind on T-shirts that could take a while.
On Sunday I ran 10 miles of which 4 were theoretically at my planned marathon pace (5:15 minutes per km). However since a) I made mess converting minutes per km to minutes per mile and b) it was icy and I prioritised remaining upright over maintaining pace I was slightly faster than easy on the 6 miles that were not at marathon pace and slightly slower than marathon pace on the 4 miles that were.
The rest of the week was marked as "easy" which I took gratefully since I also donated blood and visited my parents, neither of which circumstances are conducive to long intense runs. I ran 25 minutes at an easy pace on Tuesday and 35 minutes (20 easy, 15 steady) on Wednesday.
No trouble with my ankle at all this week. So hopefully it has sorted itself out. The easy running may have helped.
KM run this week: 40km
KM run in 2018: 182.8
While raising money for charity is not my motivation for participation, it is a big part of the London Marathon. Shelter have bribed me with a T-shirt and the promise of a post-race massage. People have been incredibly generous already, but you can donate here should you feel so inclined.
On Sunday I ran 10 miles of which 4 were theoretically at my planned marathon pace (5:15 minutes per km). However since a) I made mess converting minutes per km to minutes per mile and b) it was icy and I prioritised remaining upright over maintaining pace I was slightly faster than easy on the 6 miles that were not at marathon pace and slightly slower than marathon pace on the 4 miles that were.
The rest of the week was marked as "easy" which I took gratefully since I also donated blood and visited my parents, neither of which circumstances are conducive to long intense runs. I ran 25 minutes at an easy pace on Tuesday and 35 minutes (20 easy, 15 steady) on Wednesday.
No trouble with my ankle at all this week. So hopefully it has sorted itself out. The easy running may have helped.
KM run this week: 40km
KM run in 2018: 182.8
While raising money for charity is not my motivation for participation, it is a big part of the London Marathon. Shelter have bribed me with a T-shirt and the promise of a post-race massage. People have been incredibly generous already, but you can donate here should you feel so inclined.