Park Run completed

Well I thought I should do a follow up post from the running one I did yesterday. 

Park run went really well. I set off right at the front and took at steady whilst everything settled down and let the 21 minute pacer go past me (I was aiming for the 22 minute pacer) but to my surprise I found myself keeping up with the 21 minute pacer. Well I was stuck about 10 meters behind the group with the pacer. Ideal place for me as (having not run in groups for the past 2 years) I am used to running by myself.

I pretty much forgot to look at my watch but knew I was well under 7 minutes and it turns out it was 6:53. I actually remember being a bit surprised as I knew that sub 21 was faster than this. Sure enough it felt like the pacer picked up the pace a bit and several runners that were near me were dropped as we did the next mile in around 6:30. 

I then felt that the pace slowed a little and as we went into the last 800m I kicked past the 21 minute pacer and tried to stick with a couple of others who were pushing for home. I personally think that I went off a little bit too early as my pace dropped and then I kicked again heading into the finished. I looked down and I was past 3.1 miles before 21 minutes ticked over but didn't cross the finish line until 21:10. 

Sure enough my official park run time is 21:10 but according to my watch I ran 3.16 miles and ran 5k in 20:49. A huge boost to my confidence and shows what you can do on a low carb diet. I actually felt quite good at the end and feel I can go faster given another month of training and the correct tapering. 

Overall I am very happy with that result. To think 3 years ago I couldn't walk without being in extreme pain because of my Ledderhose disease and a year ago I weighed nearly 19 stone and couldn't run sub-30 minutes for 5k. In fact I have only run park run under 30 minutes once before.

My next goal is to make it so that the first digit is a 1. A 19 minute something 5k will be a huge achievement and I am very happy that I can do that this year. 

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. 

Running and Energy

Now to answer the question (again) of "Don't you find you have low energy on a low carb diet?" 

No we don't and generally speaking after the first few weeks you are adapted and you really don't feel low on energy. I guess an area you would most expect to see this is when running fast for a moderate length of time, such as when running a 5k. 

Today I went out and smash my 5k PB (and every record below it) and all on a low carb diet. I am now running around the 23 minutes mark for 5k and this is great for me, certainly something I didn't expect. 

So you do have plenty of energy on a low carb diet and you can run both endurance, medium and speed events on it. 

Really a post just to brag about my new running pace, sure it isn't ground-breaking but for me it is fantastic! 

3 years ago I was using a walking stick 

2 years ago I got a then PB of 29:29 

1 year ago I was not running 

6 months ago I was running 35 minute pace 

2 months ago I ran 26:29 

Today I ran 29:04 minutes 

I also ran a 7:04 mile, this alone was 45 second off of my personal best. Would be interesting to see how fast I could run a 1 mile sprint, personally think I might get down to around 6:30, or if very flat then perhaps even faster.