Week 13: CHRIIIISSSSSSTTMMAAAAASSSS
I don’t wish it could be Christmas every day
The hectic nature of the festive period meant something had to give, and that something was writing up each run in painstaking (or not) detail on the same day. But I did keep running! In fact, if you squint, you could even consider this legit half marathon training, sort of, instead of just ticking things over. Let me explain why.
Monday 23rd Dec
The weather forecast on Monday was bleurgh. Like, various apps disagreed by degree (literally) but all agreed that it was going to be properly cold, as low as -3ºC even. So, annoyed, I layered up. Long sleeve shirt, windcheater, woolly hat, gloves, the lot.
I regretted all that nonsense. Was too warm and sweaty at the end. It was a beautiful still crisp winters morning, the kind I’ve been missing so much. Made even better by there being so few people on the streets, given the schools had shut and most people weren’t working (I guess). Knocked out 5km in 26:42, which I was pretty pleased with.
Strava says it was 3ºc, feels like -4ºc. I mean, no way. There just wasn’t that wind. It was lovely.
Christmas day!
3km accidentally progressive
Loved this. I mean, look, on Christmas Day 2023 I ran a crazily fast PB for 2km so let’s not get carried away. But still, I really enjoyed this warmup.
The first km felt slow, but was 5:17. Really made me feel great that that pace felt slow. Then the second km, I didn’t even realise I sped up until I got the lap alert saying it was 5:07. At this point I faffed around with the watch to try and make it actually tell me the time, just to make sure I wasn’t going to be late for Parkrun, and then I put my foot down. Ended with a 3rd km split of 4:57, properly chuffed.
Streets even more empty than the Monday. Handful of dog walkers about, and one other runner, that was about it. Great stuff.
1km panic
After the 3km I walked slowly, given how much time I had to get to Parkrun. Dicked around on my phone for a bit, until I thought, wait, I’ve been walking way too slowly. Maybe I need to run to get to Parkrun on time! So yeah, I set off for another 1km and it was 4:54 and blimey. I’m in better shape than I thought!
Parkrun 394: my 100th at Broadwater
I’ve now attended two Parkrun events 100+ times: Bushy and Broadwater. Quite pleased with that! It was a fluke that this milestone coincided with Christmas Day. Felt nice, for some reason.
I was one of the only people there not wearing at least a Santa hat, let alone the full costume fancy dress that some folk were in. I wore my 100 shirt (old school Adidas edition) just for my own satisfaction, and ran a personal best for the new course. 28:04, which is fine. I mean it was kms 5-9 for the day after all, and this course still isn’t fast.
Friday 27th Dec
Very unusually for me, I booked some time off over the Christmas/New Year period. It would’ve been pretty annoying to work for just this single day between the bank holidays and the weekend.
I asked Helen how far I should run, and she pretty much straight away said 8km. Well, fine. Now I know I ran 9km just two days ago, but not non-stop. Stupidly, I’ve let the pendulum swing much too far away from what Runna had been asking of me and this meant that 8km non-stop was going to be my longest non-stop run of the month. Worse still, I felt very heavy after a great deal of cheese and scotch eggs on Boxing Day. Still, 8km she said so 8km I did.
It wasn’t fast, it wasn’t particularly fun - the weather was really murky and bleak - but I did it, and the new high-viz kit I’d been gifted fit well and was comfy. And yeah, I ran 8km non-stop. Maybe I can start building distance back into my legs because the half marathon really is a thing that’s going to creep up on me if I’m not careful.
Saturday 28th Dec
3km
Another progressive warmup before Parkrun, another 3km. Similar to Christmas Day, although didn’t quite sneak in below 5:00/km for the final split. Unlike Christmas Day I just did not want to be there though. Wasn’t feeling love for running, just felt meh.
Parkrun 395: final of 2024 (w/brief recap)
Unlike the last few, this time my friends showed up - both Roger and Nick, although I didn’t spot Nick until the very end when I finished just behind him. Ran the whole thing with Roger though. It was very busy and neither of us were in the mood to go quickly, so we didn’t. Couldn’t have even if we wanted to, the bottleneck at the start was bonkers.
I got wide-eyed at the end mind you, and this was yet another progressive run. Seems I do them by accident all the time. Splits were 6:24, 6:13, 5:36, 5:49, 5:31. The finish felt strong.
That was my 38th Parkrun of 2024, down 9 from the 47 I knocked out in 2023. Not sure 50 will ever be on the cards. 2024 saw me get my all time PB AND a first place, at the same run back in March when I bested 5 other people in horrendous weather in Alkmaar, Netherlands. Behold my 23:42!