I took a full rest day on Friday, and Saturday I went to parkrun. I decided I wanted to test myself on one of the flatter courses, and see if I could get another sub-7 second km etc. after my recent runs. Running all the way wasn't important this time, it was about pushing my speed a bit, and seeing how I could do. I'd done St Andrews 2 weeks ago in 37:58, my fastest time since Nov 2013, and I was sure I could bring that down a little bit. After all, the first 5km at Alloa last weekend had been 36:41. I decided to head to Perth, which I don't know anyone at, so I could focus on my run.
My first km was 6:46, and second was 6:57. Fantastic!! I kept running to the halfway turn, then when we hit the grass, I walked for a bit. I started running again shortly after, but I found the surface very tough to run on, in that it wasn't tough at all, it was squidgey, muddy, and slidey. The course has 1km of this, before you hit tarmac again, so I decided just to run/walk as best I could. My third km was 7:45, and fourth was 7:41. I knew my running speed was picking up now, although I was still walking bits here and there, so I decided in the last km just to push as best I could - Garmin shows the last km actually measuring 0.95 kms, and I ran/walked it in 6:30 (equivalent to about 6:50 for a full km) - absolutely thrilled, especially because I walked a handful of times, my running speed was hitting 8 min/mile pace for short bursts, and even faster for a sprint finish. Gobsmacked, looking at the paces I was hitting, actually.
Anyway, I recorded my time as 35:39, my official time was 35:41 - that's the best time I've ran since August 2013, and I'm over the moon. It demonstrates I've clearly started turning that corner, from the low mental state I've been in since October 2013 right through to the end of December 2014 - everything is starting to fall back into place with my training, and with what I'm doing, and above all that, my mindset is a whole new one. When I was previously running sub-36 minute parkruns, it was mentally still a struggle, and I was mentally beating myself up a lot, and not progressing. It feels different now, it feels like I've discovered how to run for me, not for the expectations of others, perceived or otherwise, or for the expectations I put on myself for how fast I "ought" to be improving. I always used to say, I never compared my times to others, and that's absolutely correct, but I always compared my rate of progress to others, and came up lacking. I wasn't putting the right training in to progress faster, but also I had huge mental blocks up, and powerful negative thinking, so... *sentence trails off*
So, buoyed from a very successful parkrun on Saturday, I hesitantly allowed myself to feel a bit positive about Sunday. This is the 'Sunday Social' trail run at Chatelherault, the hilly 4.8 mile trail loop that I ran about half a dozen times in 2013, and once in 2014. My best time on the loop is 1:05:32, but from October 2013 onwards I never managed better than 70 mins, and the one time I ran it in 2014 was 1:16:21. I decided that if I could get under 70 minutes this weekend, I'd be thrilled - but really, again, it was just about going back to a route I'd had problems with, and approaching it with a positive attitude.
Frustratingly, I forgot that my Garmin is set to km laps at the moment, so I can't do direct comparisons of the miles against my best time, but to cut to the end: I ran it in 1:05:57 !!!!!!! Totally floored, and really happy with that!! It's a route which doesn't get any easier, but I tell you what, the first two miles felt easier this time than I think they ever have before. In fact, Vicky my running companion for the first 1km tripped and fell badly, deciding to stop and walk back, and I carried on - and she told me afterwards that she soon decided she would give the run a go after all, so turned back and found she couldn't catch me up!! ME!!! Couldn't catch me up! I did feel a bit more comfortable in that first part - the steep downhill steps at 2 miles were wet and muddy so I was a little careful, but even still, I bounced down them smiling. Across the bridge, and ready for the very BIG hill, I attacked it with a brisk walk, spotting Dave Meldrum running back down the hill to meet me. I'm not saying I was concentrating hard on keeping moving, or anything, but when he jokingly told me he'd done 6 hill reps, I just nodded. LOL! This hill is very steep, and I mindlessly assumed this was part of his WHW Race training...!! :-)
He pushed me up the hill (figuratively, not literally) and made me run short parts of it, cue me stopping once, bending over swearing and trying to catch my breath! After this hill, the second 'half' of the run is really undulating, but with the company of Dave, and my general current new-found confidence, I managed to run up some of the hills the whole way, kept walk breaks to a minimum, and just plodded on. It was hard, and I definitely swore a bit, but I worked hard, and as Davie Mooney pointed out afterwards, he even caught me smiling as I was running. Wonders will never cease......
Okay, so I said I couldn't do direct comparisons on Garmin, because my laps are set to kms at the moment, but I've just tracked it out on the Garmin Connect charts, and I actually can do a direct comparison to my best time there (1:05:32 in April 2013 compared to 1:05:57 yesterday) - which makes for interesting reading (I think, lol):
Mile 1 - Apr 2013, 12:29 - Mar 2015, 13:43
Mile 2 - Apr 2013, 13:33 - Mar 2015, 13:14
Mile 3 - Apr 2013, 15:50 - Mar 2015, 15:44
Mile 4 - Apr 2013, 14:37 - Mar 2015, 14:11
Last 0.8 miles - Apr 2013, 9:03 - Mar 2015, 9:05.
Compare to the last time I tried that loop, June 2014, where the splits were 16:14 / 15:59 / 17:27 / 16:44 / 9:58 - and I think I'm firmly putting last year behind me, and moving on. :-) Setting myself the goal to get that loop done in under 60 minutes this year, now, and also setting my eyes on the next main race goal, which is 8 weeks away for the Women's 10k, and 2 weeks later for the EMF Half marathon. Just got to keep focussed, keep positive, and keep celebrating these successes along the way. As Katy Smith said to me in the café yesterday after the run, all my training is paying off. I laughed "I've only really started training!" and she said "I mean the training you've been doing up here. *points at head*" x x x
Simply lots to smile about when reading this post. Turning a corner? You did that a Christmas, it's been a joy seeing all the hard-work pay off these last few months.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the most telling sign of improvement is not in the improvement in times but the style you are doing it with - actually enjoying pushing yourself, not afraid or intimidated by the prospect of exhausting yourself, but instead embracing and making strides towards mastering it.
What you will find is as your fitness and confidence in your ability continues to improve the amount of mental effort required to put in the physical effort will drop, things that were hard, or seemed impossible will become easy. This doesn't happen overnight, but is a journey, we can already see lots of evidence that your on the right path and this transformation is happening. Spotting these changes and celebrating them as you are doing is exactly what you need to do - it's confirmation to yourself that you are on the right path, your are doing the right things day in day out.
It's wonderful to witness this transformation. Thanks for sharing it :-)
Loving these positive posts Sarah. I think this is the difference self-belief makes and you were right, any number of other people could say we believed in you and knew you were capable of all this but it was all about you believing. It's great to read these posts, your enjoyment is jumping off the page.
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