I have now done
9 Parkrun-s. My opening time (Xmas Eve) was 22:05 and today I took 19:39. I don't think I have got any fitter - but by watching the old and grizzled "proper" runners I have learned a lot: By running "with other people" I found my pace varied a lot - much faster at the start, very slow about 2km in and then a sprint for the last 300m. The 'runners' seemed to stick pretty much at the same pace all the way round, no sprinting or whatever. Now that my subconscious 'knows' I can handle the distance at about 4 minutes a km and my conscious is no longer surprised by the amount of pain it is time to "pace" myself:
Today it was raining and windy - I set myself a target of 19:55 and all I looked at on my watch was "average pace" (as there is a bit of hill at the end I ran to maintain a value of 3min 58 per km). Result? A minute faster than last week and 25 seconds off my PB.
Because of the cloud cover/rain GPS was less accurate than normal - so the distance was recorded at 4.95km - and hence my time was 19:39. Having beaten my "by Xmas" target 9 months early my new goal is 76% Age Grade (as I gain an extra year on Monday I could go a second slower and still make 75%) - 19:23ish
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