Going back to Park Run

Tomorrow I will go back to Park Run for the first time since 2013. Katie has done this Park Run twice and set amazing PBs on both occasions, fingers crossed she gets under 30 minutes soon as this will be an amazing achievement for her. 

I am going into this with a park run PB of 29:29, there is no doubt that unless something goes seriously wrong this is going to drop significantly. It is actually pacer week at Park run and to some extent I am torn as to what to do as there is going to be a sub 21 and sub 22 minute pacer. My current PB is 23:04 however I have a 1 mile PB of 6:26 and that was run at the end of a two mile build up of an 8:20 mile and 7:20 mile. I feel like I am in a good enough place in my head to target the sub 21 minute 5k but I don't think that my body is quite ready. 

I have previously run 2.2 miles in just over 15 minutes and for the first mile I ran 6:45 and for the second I ran 7 minutes. I am certainly in a much better place than I was then than I am now and 6:45 pace is fast enough to go sub 21 minutes... On the 2.2 mile run there were hills and these caused the slow down. I think at the moment 6:45 mile might be too close to the limit and I am better off going for a nice sub 22 minuets and hopefully have a kick at the end rather than blowing up and not getting a PB. If I finish with confidence then I can go back next time when I know the course and try and blow my new park run PB out of the water. I am tempted to some extent to just run my own race and ignore the pacers, I feel confident I can run 3 consecutive sub 7 minute miles and it is just a case if I can go faster or not. My ever changing plan at the moment is stick with the sub 22 minute pacer who will probably be running around 7 minutes per mile and then go for it shortly after entering the last mile to see if I can get in a sub 21:30 5k. It might depend on there being someone to follow and how my legs feel on the day as I don't do much morning speed-work. 

Pre run nutrition is typically carbs for most people and a lot of people rely on gels to get them through their long runs. On long runs I am yet to hit the wall so haven't had to tackle nutrition on long runs. On short runs however you don't want a feeling of an empty stomach. To be honest what I do this time depends on how I and my daughter sleep. If we both sleep in I might only be having butter loaded stock for breakfast, if we wake up around 7 or before then I will be having bacon and cheese for breakfast. Either way I will take on at least a pint of water in the morning and for a 5k that should see me through without needing to dispose of it too soon. 

Fingers crossed that it is going to be a good race. I have not really done a run with a group of people since that last park run and I am tempted to switch a few of my time trial runs to park runs before the 10k race to get used to running with people again. Nothing worse than having people slow you down other than having people slow you down when you don't know how to deal with it mentally. 

Anyway wish me luck on a good nights sleep and a fast time. My goal for this year is sub 21 minute 5k, then see where that takes me, I would love to get sub 19 minutes as I feel that is possible without training way too much but would also be a great time.