Parkrun and First Chance 10K

First Chance 10K
This morning was the Exeter First Chance 10K, which is the first race that is a part of the Teignbridge Trotters Club Championship for 2014.  Yesterday (Saturday) I was really thinking that the race would be called off as a sponsor posted the  below picture which is part of the course.

However, late on Saturday the organisers posted that the race would be going ahead but at a later start time to miss the worst of the high tide.

I got to the start area this morning and it was annouced that the course would be changed, but it wouldn't be exactly 10K.  The organisers had said this would happen if it was particularly flooded, so I was expecting it anyway and my Garmin showed exactly 6 miles.  The ground was fine with no mud or really large puddles, but it was obviously very wet.  However, there were some really strong headwinds for a lot of the course and it was raining quite hard.  I don't overly mind the rain, but the wind was tough.  The profile of the course is as flat as you can get though, so that is one positive.

Anyway, after last week's 10K which I averaged 7:04 min/mile I had hoped to go off at 7 min/mile pace today with aim of seeing if I could sneak a PB if it had been a full course.  However, the first bit of the race was into a headwind so I couldn't do that and just ran to feel.  My mile splits were 7:11, 7:12, 7:09, 7:26, 7:03 and 6:52, which is an average of 7:09, and a time (according to my Garmin so not official yet) of 42:54.  It does mean that even if the course had been a full 10K I wouldn't have PB'd, but I'd say that is to be expected for the conditions so I'm quite pleased really.

Running as part of the club championship added another dimension to the race for me as well, and if I stay injury free and can complete it I think I'm going to enjoy it.  I overtook 4 club mates and had a 5th in my sights but couldn't catch him, and no one from my club overtook me today.  It's all friendly competition but I think I'm going to enjoy that part of it.  The next race is next weekend which is an 11 mile (approx) off road which I will struggle with in comparison to today, but I'll just do my best    I don't expect to come anywhere in the championship at the end of the year, but it means I'm going to do some different races which is what I'm looking forward to.

Killerton parkrun
My wife and I did Killerton parkrun yesterday and the organisers has warned to expect mud!  My wife had bought a pair of trail shoes earlier in the week and this was the first time she would be trying them out, and she really enjoyed it and said the shoes helped a lot.  It was the worst conditions I've seen at the parkrun but I enjoyed, as did everyone else.  I slipped and slid around in 24:08 and although I found it tough it was a nice little limbering up session for the 10K today.

2nd parkrun (and the small matter of registering for my second marathon this year).

This morning I got my second parkrun in as many weeks competed, and I'm pleased to say I trimmed nearly a minute off the time from last week on the same Killerton course.  The time this week was 22:05.  Looking at the results for the event (I'm told I mustn't call the parkruns  races....) I noticed that there were 14 SM 35-39 (my age category) and I finished in 5th place so I'm quite pleased with that really.  Overall I was 36/174.

The fact that I had completed the course last week really helped.  I purposefully stood closer to the start line so I didn't get held up as much as last week in the first few hundred metres.  Also, knowing the profile of the course help and I ran quite a good race I think, although I did tire in from about 2.5 miles.  I don't think I could have gone any quicker today, so I'm pleased with this as a realistic time and it gives me something to aim for now.  It was also great as my wife came along for her first parkrun and came second out of six in her age category, in a time of 25:25.

Oh, and I've entered my second marathon of the year.  I entered yesterday evening and I'm in for the Dartmoor Vale Marathon in October.  The course is very local to me, so although it is a tough course and a potentially demoralising race as it's a two-lap course, I decided to give it a go.  I need to get some hill training in though; the below is a the profile of the half marathon from when I did the race last year.  The full marathon is more or less two lots of this route, apart from the last mile or so which splits off towards the finish.  The section where it rises from 200ft to about 480ft in about mile is particularly tough.

First 5K parkrun, plus MFP.

I'm pleased to say I did my first parkrun yesterday, and it was really good.  I've heard lots of good things about it through my club, and also they are very popular on Marathon Talk, so I thought I'd give one a go.  My nearest one is the Killerton parkrun near Exeter.

For those who don't know, there are various parkruns that are run every Saturday in locations all of the UK (and the world, in fact).  It's a free, timed event and it's really well organised.  Basically, as a runner you register on the parkrun website and you get allocated a bar code.  This bar code is personal to you and to get your results display on the parkrun website against your name, all you have to do make sure you take this bar code with you each time you run any parkrun.  Many people print out and laminate their codes, so I did the same.  At the end of the event, you also get given a timing token.  This timing token, together with your barcode, is what the organisers use to display your results.  After the first time registration you can just turn up to any parkrun that is being ran across the country on any weekend.  Even if you don't have your barcode, you can still run but your name will not be present in the event results - against your position there will be a name of "unknown", with no time present.

Anyway, back to my parkrun.  Killerton itself is a National Trust site so has all the facilities available with ample free parking, toilets and a cafe for after the run.  The Killerton course itself is mixed terrain with some inclines, but it's a nice pleasant course.  I got around in 23:01 (parkrun send a text an email with your results) which I was pleased with, especially as I had completed a 16-mile LSR the night before.  It's something to aim for anyway, as I'm sure I can knock a few seconds off of that based on my 43:40 10K PB.

I will definitely be doing the event again.  It's just a shame it's 25 miles from my house as it's a bit of a drive to get to for just a 5K.  If there was one nearer I would definitely look to do them more regularly.

The other reason I snuck this session into the week's plan is because it meant that this week I have completed 5 training sessions, which (apart from the December running streak, which doesn't really count) is only the second time I've done that.  I ran nearly 39 miles (38.91) this week which is the biggest weekly mileage since training for my marathon.

I mentioned the 16-mile LSR I did on the Friday.  I did this after work, and it was very hot.  I purposefully kept this at my LSR pace (10 - 10.5 min/mile) but intended to try and run a couple of miles towards the end at my half marathon target pace (8 min/mile) but I struggled, partly due to the heat.  This isn't a good sign for Torbay Half in a couple of weeks, but I'll give it my best shot on the day.

I've also been using MFP for the whole week, and I've been honest with what I've consumed and exercised.  I need to average 1800 calories per day to lose 1 pound a week.  I've decided to take an average of the calories over the week (MFP provides facilities to track calories over a week), as this helps average out any days where more food is needed (i.e., on an LSR).  I think for this week I am just about going to be under the target across the whole week, even taking into account that I went to a beer festival yesterday, which isn't the best way to keep a track of calories and eat healthily!  Still, I enjoyed the festival and didn't eat or drink a huge amount and even with the beer festival I'm going to be close to the required calories over the course of a week.  I'm going to keep MFP going and see how I get on over the next few weeks.