Visiting Chester to do the metric marathon so took the opportunity for some parkrun tourism!
It was (understandably) very congested today so it took about a minute after the ‘go’ to start running. Took it nice and easy – this one’s not super fast due to some grass trail sections but it’d be nice to visit again on a quieter weekend.
Back close to home again next week.
Another first weekend of the month, another pacer week at Town Moor, another bagging of the 27 pacer slot. Felt rubbish in the first mile and was worried I would feel even more rubbish later on, but as usual it got easier and felt like I was jogging it in towards the end. 26:59 result 👌
Further afield next week.
Attempted a stronger effort round the Dene yesterday to see what I could do. Pretty disappointing run ☹️ which might be the result of a high mileage week, but that’s not historically been the case for me (usually a high mileage week leads to a better parkrun result at the weekend).
I did finish strong, but there’s not much point in a strong finish at the end of a weak run.
I’ll get Chester Metric out of the way and then focus on a bit of speed later in the autumn once I’m recovered. I’d really like to start getting my parkrun times back down again.
Another trip to the Moor in order to attend the annual GNR photo day. It has very much been a week of recovery post-race and so I planned to take it easy, though it did turn into a bit of a progression towards the end as expected.
Back to it this next week and so I’ll be attempting a time trial in the Dene, really just to see where I am.
It was the GNR weekend parkrunday at Jesmond Dene this morning, which is the best parkrunday of the year 😀
I was timekeeping, which is my favourite role. 538 people over the line today, which is about 300 more than normal!
Running the GNR as usual tomorrow so I’ll be back on the Moor next week for the traditional t-shirt photo.
Town Moor for the fourth week running! I am never normally at the same parkrun so many weeks in a row. There have been lots of reasons to go there recently though.
Today’s reason was pacer week, as I like pacing. I paced 27 again, just like three weeks ago. I was a tiny bit anxious about it after last week, when I couldn’t even get under 27 at full effort, but I suspected that was a fatigue-induced aberration and I was right – 27 felt nice and steady today and I had to keep myself from going too fast in the last mile. Helped my friend Beth to a PB too!
Definitely somewhere different next week – I’m booked to volunteer at Jesmond Dene for the pre-GNR parkrun.
Another week, another Town Moor. But I really struggled this week – I put the same effort in as my recent fast runs, but was nowhere near pace. I’ve had a very intense few days of game-making for a community challenge, and I think the lack of sleep and long hours have resulted in a lot of fatigue. I’ll try again in a few weeks after the GNR.
Not 100% decided on next week yet but it won’t be a super fast effort.
It was our friend Marie’s 100th parkrun today so we went to the Moor again. It was also a good test to see where my fitness was after a few weeks of building back the mileage.
Answer: surprisingly good! Took 23 seconds off the season’s best for a 25:03. Hoping to dip under 25 next time (which will likely be next week as both Geth and I are appreciating the opportunity to run a bit harder on the flat at the moment).
Still a long way from my 23:2x PB zone, but really happy to be whittling it down again.
It was pacer week at Town Moor today and I hadn’t paced all year, I don’t think. I paced 27 minutes last time I did it (about a year ago?) and I’m currently a teensy bit slower because an injury threw a spanner in the works at the start of the year. Nevertheless I’m currently running Town Moor in 25:xx whenever I properly go for it so I thought 27 would be just about doable.
(And also it was the only slot left in the high 20s.)
(And also 27 used to be Ed’s pacer slot, and he always used to tell me I shouldn’t be pacing 30-odd like I was doing back then because I could do a lot better than that.)
So I signed up for 27 and hoped that the forecast would be right about it cooling down after a hot few days. Thankfully, it was. 8:40 min miles felt genuinely comfortable (why is that only ever the case at parkrun?) and I had to stay focused in order to keep it slow enough in the last half mile or so to hit the time goal. 26:59 and in total control the whole way. Delighted with that.
No idea about next week yet but it’ll be local.
I broke my eight-year Phone Box Thursday streak a few weeks ago. After writing my tribute to Ed, I couldn’t face blogging again that day. So no more random hiatus posts when I don’t have any phone boxes to write about, which is quite likely a relief to readers as well as to me. Since I returned from Canada in May I have gradually developed a new tradition of ‘Doughnut Thursdays’, so going forward I will likely mix phone box posts with doughnut reviews. I’m on a real doughnut kick at the moment and have tried a lot of them.
This week, however, I do have a phone box to write about. We found it while running Keswick parkrun last Saturday. Keswick parkrun is an out-and-back, which meant I had a bit of time to think about it and decide that, yes, I could quickly stop for a photo of the phone box on the way back and still manage to catch up with Geth.
(Coordinates 54°60’71.4N, 3°10’71.9″W.)
I didn’t have time to look at it during parkrun, but there appears to be a café sandwich board being kept in this phone box, so maybe a local business is using it for storage.
Another box from our trip next week!