Another Fun Week

After Saturday's fun run at the Richmond ParkRun where, except for the very first run I did, I recorded an all time worst and just scraped in under 30 minutes. I wasn't going with any particular time in mind and it was just to be an easy run after the three month lay-off which I had thought something a bit over 28 minutes would have been about the form to have expected. But thirty minutes  is pretty abysmal although I had placed myself wel to the rear of the pack and had lost at least 25 seconds just getting to the start line.

With that in mind I went out for another jog on Tuesday. Having previously circled around the Bushy course so many times recently I took myself back to the central part of Richmond Park for a change with a slightly longer course and a few hills just to break up the monotony. Unfortunately I picked the hottest day of the year. About half the course is tree lined so I got the benefit of the shade on the wooded parts but the remainder, including the hilly bits, was rather more exposed. By two miles I was down to a walk/jog but I turned it all into a half baked 'hills' session, walking on the down/flat bits and pushing as hard as I could up the slopes. That worked fairly well and it felt as if I'd done something a bit more useful with the jog. At least it felt like a work-out.
Mile 1, 9:09.  ml 2,  9:28.  ml 3,  12:13.  ml 4, 12:34.  ml 5,  10:38.     Total 4.81mls

The following day must have been one of the hottest on record. I postponed the run that I'd anticipated for that day until Thursday and went early to Bushy as it was forecasted to be another Scorchio. I'd intended to do a second longer jog around the outer perimeter of the park which usually ends up at about five miles. I started with a completely unnecessary warm up of about a mile as the temperature seemed even hotter than it had the day before. By the two mile mark which is where I'd usually head off for the perimeter track, I'd already had enough and was down to a steady walk which I continued back to the end of the ParkRun course. I finished the last three quarters of a mile at a jog and retired back to the car to seek some shade and water.
Mile 1,  9:17.   ml. 2,  9:26.  ml 3,  11:41.   5k= 31:20.    3 mls= 30:24

I can only hope that it's the temperatures that's causing the complete lack of speed on these outings. Most of the jogs I've done lately have been under high temperature and humid conditions. Not having jogged much over the last couple of months has had a serious effect on any semblance of fitness that I had. I'm looking forward to a bit cooler weather that I can use a bit more profitably.

My usual mode of training has been to carry out one longer jog at the start of the week, then a couple of 5k jogs along one of either of the two ParkRuns that I frequent, and finish up with the ParkRun on the Saturday morning to force a bit of pace along. Although this practice works after a fashion and culminates in a good run after a few weeks I'm going to have to do something a bit differently I think.

Just for a change and because I wasn't really feeling up to it after the last week's efforts, instead of jogging Parkrun on Saturday morning I took Mrs D, granddaughter, dog and kayak down to the club's Hare & Hounds event to let Ellie have a second go at the two mile distance. It had almost been for a Hasler event at Henley but we were unable to get a second crew member at short notice. Getting her into the boat and into the water by the start time went smoothly enough and she started off at a reasonable pace. I jogged along behind and she was able to maintain the pace all the way, including a bit of speed at the finish.