I just finished a 17.145km running that lasted about 1hh:40mm:27ss !
I was watching some of the European indoor athletics championships over the last couple of days. Having done some running gives me some perspective on how fast they are. The women are doing 1500m in about four minutes. That is about twice as fast as I could manage it, but then I am probably over double their age and have not trained all my life. I accept that I will never be super quick, but I think I can still improve.
My current routine is a couple of shorter runs (around 7km) during the week that may involve some intervals and a long run at the weekend to bring me up to around 30km overall. I am not following any plan that I have read about, but this feels like something I can manage that may bring improvements. I would like to be able to run further and I hope my body can get used to longer distances. I welcome suggestions.
Today was another variant of my longer loop into Letchworth. I joined the path by Standalone farm via the track that was not too muddy today. When I came out of the farm I decided to try going through the Grange Estate. This is a maze of roads and footpaths, but I tried to keep heading in the right general direction.It was fairly quiet around there. As I came down one alley a lady on an electric buggy was ahead of me. I was not able to keep up with her.
After I came out of the estate I took another back road I have been down before with some nice houses. I caught up with and passed a lady there, but was almost immediately passed by a guy who was going much quicker. I saw a few other runners who were going the other way plus some cyclists. I see lots of people out exercising generally around here. I wonder if that has increased in the last year.
After Norton I joined the Greenway as usual to keep away from the main road. When I did re-join the road a guy came storming past me and there was no chance I would keep up with him. I was tiring anyway by then, but I still find the energy to speed up some short uphill stretches.
Then it was the usual tramp through Stotfold that I must have done hundreds of times. My legs were not feeling too bad.
I had been discussing heart rate with my dad. He has been a rower for many years and still coaches. He is a big believer in training to a heart rate and uses a rowing machine at home. I could keep an eye on it as I run, but I just tend to run at the pace that feels comfortable. On my run last weekend my average was almost 170bpm, which seems a bit high. Today it was 153bpm, which is more reasonable for someone my age. I do not know how reliable the readings from my Garmin watch are. I expect the serious runners monitor this more carefully. I do know my resting rate is fairly good compared with what it used to be.
We can get overwhelmed with statistics from all the apps we have now. I just hope I am doing myself some good.
Run free and stay well.
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