parkrun

[Cybertronian]

Gilhooligan said:

I think I may have hit my peak. Since joining parkrun, my times have slowly came down from 23 mins to low 20's. I'm desperate to get a sub 20 min but the last 5 parkruns have all been roughly the same. My current pb is 20:15. Frustrating! Anyone else experienced this?

Are you giving intervals a blast at all? I plateaued around the low 20s like you all through the spring and once the summer rolled around, I added a weekly interval sesh where I was running several reps of 800m each at faster than 5k pace. I experimented with the length of the recoveries and settled on 90 seconds where it felt just right. At the end of the summer, I hit 19:18 and possibly could have kept going had I not had to detour my training for two half marathons.

[Gilhooligan]

Cybertronian said:

Gilhooligan said:

I think I may have hit my peak. Since joining parkrun, my times have slowly came down from 23 mins to low 20's. I'm desperate to get a sub 20 min but the last 5 parkruns have all been roughly the same. My current pb is 20:15. Frustrating! Anyone else experienced this?

Are you giving intervals a blast at all? I plateaued around the low 20s like you all through the spring and once the summer rolled around, I added a weekly interval sesh where I was running several reps of 800m each at faster than 5k pace. I experimented with the length of the recoveries and settled on 90 seconds where it felt just right. At the end of the summer, I hit 19:18 and possibly could have kept going had I not had to detour my training for two half marathons.

I've recently joined my uni athletics club actually and we've been doing 200m up to 1600m sprints, which I think should be good training for the 5k. That's only 1 hour a week though. Maybe I just need to put more hours in, or be more patient lol.

[ewenm]

It looks like there will be a Bath ParkRun starting in the New Year which is good news. I've contacted the person organising it to see how I can get involved

[ewenm]

john2443 said:

(With my event directors hat on, please remember that a reason it can happen and be free is that we ask everyone to volunteer 3 times a year, so once you've got a few under your belt, please volunteer now and then )

I had a very interesting meeting last night with a group planning a Bath ParkRun launch. Would you mind if I emailed you directly with some event-director / run-director type questions?

[john2443]

ewenm said:

I had a very interesting meeting last night with a group planning a Bath ParkRun launch. Would you mind if I emailed you directly with some event-director / run-director type questions?

No problem, PM me and I'll do my best to advise. I'm working in Chippenham this week and next week and maybe again in the new year, if you want to meet up for a pint and chat about it if that would be easier that typing everything let me know.

[ED209]

Absolutely over the moon this morning (and i am a miserable sod) my garmin is telling me i have just knocked 40 seconds off my best park on my local course (Blackhill) with its approx 90m of climbs.

its telling me i did 21.16 which i didn't actually think was possible for me, looks like the 5-6 coached interval sessions i have done have paid off.

This was despite almost going arse over tit due to some tit running with a crazy border collie on an extendable lead which decided to run across me after about half a mile

[Halb]

I still have my PB. Won't know till the email as my mapmyfitness app cocked up an I forgot to stop my watch.
Nice to keep the PB though. There will be a pace race in two weeks so hope to keep it then too.

My new parkrun playlist helped.

[Gilhooligan]

Ran my fastest ever park run this morning! Tagged onto the back of a group of guys that overtook me halfway and managed a 20:08. Tantalisingly close to my sub 20 min goal.
To detract from the high of setting a new pb though , my nike + transponder decided it didn't want to work at the start line so couldn't record my run. Typical!

[Willy Nilly]

Work is still hindering running glory at the moment, but we have a 5KM time trial every other month at my running club. The last one was 2 weeks ago and I did 19:32 which isn't bad because my fitness is always lowest at this time of year.

[john2443]

Missed parkrun yesterday, staying at a log cabin in Derbyshire for reunion of the group who went to the Himalayas in 1988.

Ran this morning round the woods with one of the guys, just a gentle 25 min 5k, but a special run with someone I see rarely but spent an amazing few weeks with going up to 20000 feet once upon a time.

[ED209]

ED209 said:

Absolutely over the moon this morning (and i am a miserable sod) my garmin is telling me i have just knocked 40 seconds off my best park on my local course (Blackhill) with its approx 90m of climbs.

its telling me i did 21.16 which i didn't actually think was possible for me, looks like the 5-6 coached interval sessions i have done have paid off.

This was despite almost going arse over tit due to some tit running with a crazy border collie on an extendable lead which decided to run across me after about half a mile

Time was confirmed as 21.17 which is 39 seconds faster than previous best. Still over the mooon!

I think i am becoming addicted to parkrun, and it saves me money because it keeps me off the drink on a friday night.

Considering travelling to the Chester-le-Street run in a couple of weeks because its a flat course, hopefully i might be able to get below 21 minutes.

[Roger645]

Ran Braunstone Park on Saturday as a tourist (up visiting the in laws)and was a great run, usual Parkrun friendliness from all concerned and free cake at the end! Got me thinking about next year, so thinking of running 14 different park runs in 2014, any recommendations for "must runs" and the reason why?

[944fan]

Roger645 said:

any recommendations for "must runs" and the reason why?

I think Bushey should be a "must run" as it was the first, or the cradle as they call it. As for others, I have only every done the Porthcawl and Milton Keynes and neither of those are particularly special as far as I can see. MK is almost completely flat with the exception of one killer zig zag hill so could be fast.

[john2443]

Roger645 said:

any recommendations for "must runs" and the reason why?

Bushy has to be on the list due to being the first.

1 in each of Poland, Denmark, USA, South Africa, Oz, NZ, Russia, Eire, NI, Scotland, Wales.

That's 12, you won't be able to do Camp Bastion without signing up for a few years service so that's out, add 2 more of your choice!

Being more realistic, Bushy plus any that are in easy reach of home then maybe 1 in each home country and 1 abroad - can you fit it in with summer holiday - there's one in Orlando (near Disney if you have kids!) There's 1 in NI that's along the beach, would be fun in nice weather.

I can't really think of other Must Runs, they are all interesting in their own way.

[madbadger]

Did my first parkrun at the weekend. Ended up parking miles away from the start so arrived just after the start so started 2 minutes late and set off playing catch up. Not the best start!

However there must have been something about catching people up as I caught 80 people along the way and got 27:30. I was aiming for something under 30 mins (based on a normal 10km time of about an hour) so 25:30 was brilliant. Couple of years ago I couldn't run any distance and wouldn't have done a mile without walking. I appreciate my time is still miles off some of yours but I was pleased.

Need to go back now next week and score a proper time. Should get a pb anyway.

[Sarkmeister]

After a few weeks of taking it easy, I finally managed to break the 21 min barrier on Saturday (previously PB was 21:02).

I think pacing it a bit better helped, partially assisted by another runner who seemed to be running at exact the same speed as me throughout. Looks like we ended up helping each other get a PB without knowing it. I didnt have much of a sprint in me at the end, but didnt slow down either.

Target for 2014.....Sub 20 mins. Not gonna be easy I think.

[Sarkmeister]

madbadger said:

Did my first parkrun at the weekend. Ended up parking miles away from the start so arrived just after the start so started 2 minutes late and set off playing catch up. Not the best start!

However there must have been something about catching people up as I caught 80 people along the way and got 27:30. I was aiming for something under 30 mins (based on a normal 10km time of about an hour) so 25:30 was brilliant. Couple of years ago I couldn't run any distance and wouldn't have done a mile without walking. I appreciate my time is still miles off some of yours but I was pleased.

Need to go back now next week and score a proper time. Should get a pb anyway.

Thats a great time for a first effort...

[madbadger]

Thanks.

[ED209]

Another good day, about halfway round i though i would be maybe 20-30 secs behind last week and i was happy enough to be honest. Anyway i tried hard after that to catch the bloke in front of me looking for my best position (most fast runners not running because of a cross country this afternoon) I didn't quite catch him but trying meant i went a good bit quicker in the second half.

Ended up with an official time of 21.04 which beats last weeks 21.17. My garmin told me 21.07 but i will take 21.04 to be honest!

I also managed 4th out of 63 which beats my previous best of 5th which again was on a day when the best were not running.

[Gilhooligan]

Well after 27 Parkruns I've finally got into the sub 20's. Managed 19.52 this morning, beating my previous PB by 16 seconds. Chuffed is an understatement!