Park running – The Vintage Runner

April 15, 2024April 15, 2024

Park Run Pacemaking

This was my first attempt at pacemaking, it seemed like a good idea at the time and so it proved to be.

I like doing Park Runs, Kathryn has taken up running of a longer distance variety so I can keep her company and also I treat it as endurance training for the track, rather than train for Park run or anything longer.

I’ve recently swapped from Strava app on Apple watch to the Apple workout app. I find the watch interface much better – still love Strava site generally though. I would really have little idea of how to control my pace without this.

It was definitely a bit hard to hold my pace back to the target 5:35 / km to match my 28 minute bib. But I managed to get into the rhythm pretty quickly with the watch nagging away at me. I also made an effort to even my pace out a bit more than usual – I’m typically sluggish up the hills but can fly downhill with no effort. It’s quite hilly at Gadebridge Park and I suddenly found myself falling behind on the steep uphill around the 4th kilometre. But with the trusty tech I was able to pick it up for the last km and was very happy to cross the line in 27:57 on the watch – not bad for a first time 🙂 Though I was soon put in my place by two club mates Katy who finished in 25:58 (26 min bib) and Matt who finished in 24.0 (you guessed it 24 min bib).

Kathryn also had her first go at and finished in a good time of 39:35 (40 min bib).

Will happily do that again.

November 8, 2020November 29, 2020

Life in the Local Park

Sunday is usually park day at this time of year, though we’d normally travel to Gadebridge. Now we’re in lockdown it makes sense to try out our local Lowndes park. Well, I shouldn’t really say “try out” as it’s far from our first time – just been a while…..

We start with the usual longer run. I’m still in two minds after my calf has been playing up. It feels a bit tight during warm-up and form drills but nothing bad so decide I’ll give it a go. The first hill is horrible, has this deceptive dip that makes the top look visually closer and physically lulls you into a false sense of security as you ease into the dip and then the next part of the hill hits you!! I’m just about walking by the top, but I make it. There are some dog walkers standing and chatting at the top. I turn onto the flat hoping pick up the pace, my legs think otherwise. The dog walkers look at me like I’m mad, at this point I think they are right but don’t want to show it so push past. Actually “push” is the wrong word and “wade” is probably better as I might as well be waist deep in treacle.

Things improve after that and I get a good head of steam going down the hill towards the duck pond. Then I see a bit of a dip in the ground , actually more of a hole with what looks like a bit of concrete covered in grass and sadly right in my path so immediate evasive action is needed and my calf rebels on landing after the sudden change of direction. Not major but enough pain to let me know it’s time to decelerate gracefully (?) and give up the run.

Marcus completes the run at a good pace and I have to settle for giving him moral support as he does the hill sprints – 2 sets of 4×120 with 7 minutes in between. This is up the bit of hill with the deceptive dip. Very painful, half of me is glad to be watching whilst the other half is desperate to be running with him.

October 25, 2020November 29, 2020

Water, Water, Everywhere

Marcus’s Coronavirus test came back negative so we were free to train, but he was still feeling under the weather (his temperature had been over 40 so couldn’t say he was swinging the lead) so I headed down to training alone. With my mind on such things I forgot about all the sounds of heavy rain overnight. Well on arrival, as you can tell from the photo – this is the field where we warm up and then start our long run. Neither of those we going to happen……

So we worked out a new course, a few recces disguised as warm-up jogs did the trick. We found a new route that worked out at 2.32 km – only about 100m longer than our regular route, surprisingly close when you’re not measuring and looking for suitable trees as markers.

My run wasn’t great, I could blame the slippery conditions but I think it was more of an average day. The park is quite hilly, I’ve decided I need to improve my running uphill, that’s been a real weakness. I focused on keeping tall and getting some knee drive, not just plodding up. That part went well but I couldn’t get my time much below 5 mins pr km throughout. Crossing the final bridge I met two large groups of people heading in opposite directions – I ended up just walking across, too late to make anything up really. 11:25 was the time in the end. I’d like to forget it but I’ve committed to recording it here 🙂

Then it was onto the hills – 2 sets of 4x120m. That bit felt better, Yet again I’d forgotten to put my longer spikes in. Katy and James for company up the hills. A good session in the end,

October 24, 2020November 29, 2020

Workout in the Park

The track is closed for refurbishment (still!!) so we are down in the park. Well that means we get to run in the daylight. Makes it tricky for a few of the squad but works for most. We would normally be doing some perimeter runs at the track so coach has recreated a slightly longer (to reflect the lack of a mini-hill in the middle). So it’s about 600m on soft ground. Now this is why I must write these up at the time – I’ve already forgotten my splits.