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The 39 Steps

Sun 1/3 - Surface = pavement/tarmac

Decided to run the session at around 12:05 pace as that was what the running websites were saying should be my pace for an easy. Found it difficult to run that slow and I was averaging around 11:30 per mile. The conditions were absolutely awful. Horizontal rain and sleet and blowing a gale. 50% of the run was into a headwind which was very difficult to run into. Despite the waterproofs I was absolutely soaked and cold.

Day 37 - 50 mins - Run 50 mins - Completed

01. 50:00 - 11:44 - 149 (4.26 miles)

Mile Splits:
1 - 11:05
2 - 11:42
3 - 11:54
4 - 11:40

Total Miles - 4.26 miles
Duration - 50 mins
Avg Pace - 11:44
Avg HR - 149
Calories - 476
 
Should have been out yesterday but work got in the way and today doesn't look very promising either. Doesn't help when people schedule 5pm conference calls. Need to set up "meetings" to block out my calendar so I don't miss the runs.
 
Wed 4/3 - Surface = pavement/tarmac

Managed to get out during the twilight hours and finished in the dark. Easy run for the first 20 mins and then increased the pace for the 2nd half. All set for the big final session to run the 10K in under 60 mins. Will see if I can do it on Friday, work permitting. If not it will have to be Saturday.

Day 38 - 40 mins - Run 40 mins - Completed

01. 40:00 - 10:51 - 154 (3.69 miles)

Mile Splits:
1 - 11:27
2 - 11:17
3 - 10:40
.69 - 10.58

Total Miles - 3.69 miles
Duration - 40 mins
Avg Pace - 10:51
Avg HR - 154
Calories - 423
 
Sun 8/3 - Surface = pavement/tarmac

59 mins 11 secs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray! Pop the champagne corks! Second half was much tougher than 1st half even though started off with it raining cats and dogs. I was totally focused on the goal though and didn't notice the rain and weather conditions. Thankfully wasn't windy. Didn't feel any niggles other than some shoulder pain at the start of the 5th mile but that soon went away with raising my arms. Breathing as usual was the limiting factor but numerous deep breaths and adjustment of pace got me through. I was conscious throughout to not let the pace drop. Keeping on my toes and keeping the rhythm helped.

Day 39 - 59 mins 11 sec - Run 10K - Completed

01. 59:11 - 9:31 - 154 (6.2 miles)

Mile Splits:
1 - 9:27 (192)
2 - 9:29 (160)
3 - 9:37 (164)
4 - 9:22 (166)
5 - 9:42 (167)
6 - 9:20 (167)
.2 - 9:58

Total Miles - 6.2 miles
Duration - 59 mins 11 sec
Avg Pace - 9:31
Avg HR - 168
Calories - 683

Thanks for everyone who read the posts since Christmas day. The goal now is to not let all the hard work go to waste and go back to bad habits. I gave signed up to a few races to keep my motivation going:

22/3 - 7 Pools Run 10K
3/5 - Great Birmingham 10K
14/6 - Aldridge 10K
18/10 - Great Birmingham Run Half Marathon

I may get a place at the Great North Run through work but I am waiting to hear about that.

I plan to do a 8 week programme between now and the Birmingham 10K and then train for the half marathon in October.

I'll come back and let you know how I got on in those races. Thanks again for reading.
 

Congratulations sks and all the best with carrying on. Very inspirational and I hope you enjoyed most of it! Do you just use your garmin or anyone of the hundreds of apps available for the smartphones?
 
Baruney said:
Congratulations sks and all the best with carrying on. Very inspirational and I hope you enjoyed most of it! Do you just use your garmin or anyone of the hundreds of apps available for the smartphones?
Click to expand...

Thanks @Baruney. I am running the 7 Pools Run which is a 10K this Sunday so looking forward to that with a bit of trepidation. It's my first race for quite a while.

I use Runkeeper on my Iphone. I like the voice prompts it gives you and the interface is very user friendly. I didn't use to like listening to music while running but that changed over the past few months especially with Spotify being the best thing since sliced bread. The Runkeeper voice prompts were an added incentive to wear the headphones.
 
Best of luck for Sunday. Is that the free Spotify or subscription? I'm getting a bit bored of my music. I have used runkeeper on my android but my hrm works better on icardio.
 
Your mention of 7 Pools Run intrigued me to look it up http://www.7poolsrun.org.uk/ Great to bring back my memories of canoeing and rowing at Sea Ranger regattas in Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield in 1980s. I'm otherwise occupied, volunteering at Sheffield Adventure Film Festival, this weekend, but will remember 7 Pools Run for another year, as my family live nearby. Good to see there's entry on the day, so still time for other followers of this thread to join in! Also good to see it's fundraising for a local charity.

Run well and enjoy Sunday
 
Sun 22/3

Seven pools Run - Cross Country 10K

Weather - Around 8-10 degrees, sunny,calm

Time: 11am

BS: 4.3 @ 9.45am (Fasting)

Official Finish Time: 01:02:40

When they described the course as "undulating" they weren't kidding. Really tough course which at times just seemed to be constantly uphill. Thankfully I have done a bit of uphill training but you need to do some serious hills to gear up for this course. Safe to say take your time for this and take 5 mins off easily for a flat course. The course is picturesque and takes in all 7 pools around the park and with it being dry the terrain was relatively dry. Few muddy pools to run through which can upset your rhythm but probably nothing you wouldn't accept on a cross country course.

I finished really fast and threw in a sprint finish but disappointed to not get under 60 mins. I think what is important for me is to run the 1st mile at the desired pace or under as i struggle to recover the time as the race continues. Maybe should have started my speed up for the finish a bit earlier but can't complain. It was between miles 2.4 and 3.6 that I lost the <under 60 min goal. A bit more effort during that period would have got me under the 60 mins.

Organisation was really good with the course clearly sign-posted and plenty of marshalls around.

Decided to not listen to music and just had the iphone in my pocket with Runkeeper on and didn't set any pace prompts on the Garmin which was probably a mistake.

Garmin (6.03 miles)
Mile 1 - 9:53 (174)
Mile 2 - 10:27 (164)
Mile 3 - 9:57 (162)
Mile 4 - 11:14 (162)
Mile 5 - 10:46 (158)
Mile 6 - 9:43 (166)
Mile 0.3 - 6:18 (175)

Good experience and just got to keep on training. Next race on 3/5 which is the Birmingham 10K.
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@Baruney I use the Spotify premium. Don't have to pay for it myself but I would if I had to as it is well worth the money

@copepod Thanks for the message and encouragement. Kicking myself for not knowing about Sutton Park. Lovely area and plenty to explore. Will definitely be taking my kids back up there soon.
 

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Sun 3/5

Great Run Birmingham 10K

Time 10.30am

Official Time: 1 hr 11 min 02 sec

A disappointing time but to be expected as I had not run for a month due to illness and work. Taking that into account it was good to still finish. Morning started off on the wrong foot as my fasting reading was 6.0 which is the highest it has been for over 3 months. I didn't really have anything bad for dinner yesterday other than sausages. I can only assume the over night excitement about the race contributed to it.

Mile Splits
1 - 09:01
2 - 10:06
3 - 10:51
4 - 10:54
5 - 14:01
6 - 12:08
0.2 - 08:55

Set off far too fast in the excitement of the race and paid for that with every mile gradually becoming slower and slower. Once we hit THE HILL on mile 5 I was done. Sorry to say walked a fair bit of that 5th mile as didn't have much left in the tank.

Wasn't able to dig deep and pluck out the extra effort today which can be put down to the lack of training.

Still nice to run in my local race which was well organised.

Back to the drawing board in terms of training. 6 weeks for the Aldridge 10K so need to make sure I make full use of the time until 14/6.
 
Best of luck
With the training. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather to encourage us out there.
 
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