Benchmark!

This is another boring running blog, but really that’s about all I’m doing.

I’m still looking for the Goldilocks super trainer. I got told, and the reviews agreed, that the Adidas one was the way to go. Cheapest of the super trainers, wide fit, and a genuine rival for the all conquering Nike. I got a pair.

Weird things. But the reviewers, and people on twitter, said they felt odd until you gave it beans then suddenly they all came together. Only one way to find out.

I don’t know if it’s because I set off too fast, was too ambitious with my pace, or if I didn’t have the fitness to maintain the pace for the distance, but the trainers just didn’t feel ‘super’. They just felt like normal trainers. I’m hoping it was just me, and that I can adjust. By the end of the 20 miles I was done in. My pace had dropped until it was all I could do to keep it near 8m/m, and if I’d have had another 6 miles (which is what the training is all about) I reckon I’d have been walking.

I finished 20 miles at 7.30 m/m, so a new 20 mile PB, but very discouraging.

Then the weirdest thing. I had one day, which went to two, then three, where I lost my dieting mojo and kept shoving sweet stuff down my neck. Work called me just as I was getting up to go running on Wednesday with a shift starting an hour or so later. They shut the motorway so it turned into an 11 hour 45 minute shift, back in work 9 hours later, so no run that day. Fail. Then on Thursday I was tired and a bit weak, and on my gluttony binge, so I just got in from work and inhaled all the calories. Another run fail day.

This morning I was off, supposed to be a run rest day, but I thought I’d better claw one run back from my fail list.

I got up and was cleaning my teeth, when I suddenly thought “Should I just sack this sub 3 off?”

It was totally unexpected, the first time I’ve even thought it since taking on the challenge.

For a second it was really tempting. Take it easy, don’t kill myself training, trough all the calories.

Then I started to panic. That is a really dangerous state for me. I get wild enthusiasms, pursue them single-mindedly until I lose interest, then I don’t want anything to do with them.

I threw on my running kit and went for a run.

The plan said to do 8 miles with 5x 600m at 5K pace. I took that to mean ‘do 8 miles and include a 5K race’ (because I’ve been wondering how my fitness is for a while, and I wanted to test it on a 5K/ 3.1 mile race).

The benchmark time is sub 20 minutes. When I was fit and practicing for that distance, I managed to get a PB of 20.35 (and a mile PB of 6.25 along the way).

I used my Saucony trainers as they make you spin your legs up. It was really, really hard work, but check it out!

I was going for it

I’ve finally hit a benchmark! Sub 20! That’s the boost my training needed. My mojo is firing on all cylinders again. And I smashed my mile PB on the way with a 6 m/m. Bit gutted about that. One more second and I’d have had a sub 6 mile.

Back to the diet and training. Got to smash sub 3. The diet is more or less done. Or was before 3 days pigging out. I was 10 stone 2 last week. I was miraculously only 10.3 this morning so I hope I can get it back.

Apart from the running and dieting (same thing, really) all I’ve been up to is getting some tomato seeds going for me and Lisa, and decorating. Endless, tedious, decorating. It will be nice when we are finished. In the same way banging your head off a wall is great when you stop. It’s not before time, everything was looking shabby.

Our new daffs put on a biddy but impressive show.

Right, a bit of twitter and I’m done.

The Great Hypocrisy continued.

It was St Patrick’s Day

Shocking truths

My running App gave me another inspirational message

And general whimsy

(That is about not appreciating the mundane now, in pursuit of an idealised future, not, as Wendy and Lisa seem to think, about someone dying.)

That, I think, is profound.

Later.

Buck.

PS,

(Sunday)

This plan is brutal but effective.

Mainly brutal. But effective.

It said today I had to go for a “tune up 8-15K race”, which I took to mean a flat out 10 mile race. That’s a big ask after battering my legs 2 days ago getting that sub 20 minutes 5K. Especially as that was has always been my go-to race distance to test my fitness. I had some pretty impressive times to beat. (For me, that is.)

I went with my Saucony trainers again.

Finally! After 3 years I’ve smashed my previous PB (and a 10K PB on the way). And, moreover, I held a sub 3 pace for 10 miles! That is progress! When I started this plan I was struggling to envisage ever holding that pace for more than a mile. It’s 4 weeks today until my tester marathon, then another 25 weeks of training before my actual sub 3 attempt. I am really hopeful now. Yay!