Fitness Friday - a return to form

A combination of teacher training, school holidays and being ill had pushed my running fitness right back. At the beginning of September I couldn't even run 5k without lots of rests and I was 7-8 minutes off my PB. So I started trying to run every day once the children had gone back to school. Most days this was 5k and I found that eventually I could run the whole distance without needing a break but I was still well off my best...

Therefore I needed to try and gain both speed and stamina. I did a couple of days using the 10k runner app and ran 6k or more on both days. However I had pushed myself too hard too fast and when my leg hurt for an entire 5k I decided to take a few days off.

This Monday I felt fit again so thought I would try out Jeffing (Jeff Galloway run-walk) as some of my online running friends had found that it worked to speed them up. I set an interval app to 5 minute:1 minute sections and headed off for a 5k run... it seems counterintuitive to walk to go faster but it works! I ended up just over 3 minutes faster than when I first did the route:

I managed a similar run and time on Tuesday with which I was very pleased. On the Wednesday it was my son's fell training on the Helm so I was helping out so didn't do a long run but there was quite a lot of elevation:

Then we came to the start of the month and the Ron Hill Challenge to run at least 1 mile every day for the whole month. It was nearly a bad start as yesterday I was at work all day and then couldn't out until 7:30 PM. I didn't have long so I thought I would just try and find a mile long route and leg it! Of course I had no idea where to go to achieve this but luckily I found a way to do a mile and end up back close to home. I went off like a rocket and was briefly under 5 minutes per kilometre pace. I knew that was too fast to keep up but I managed to average under 6 minutes per kilometre to get my second faster 1 mile time!

Today is the only chance of a long run so I wrapped up in my hi-viz jacket and headed out towards Sedgewick along the road. It turned out to be a lovely route and with the odd minute of walking every couple of kilometres I reached the river and the 5k point in 33 minutes and 15 seconds - nearly faster than my flat 5k in town! Then it was an off-road route reversing the walk we had on Sunday.

It was interesting having to negotiate stiles with tired legs! When I got back to the start my phone said I had run 8.5k and I decided I felt good enough to carry on to complete my Run Mummy Run She Cracked It virtual 10k. I quick diversion up Natland Mill Lane and back down Burton Rd and I did it:

According to Strava my 3rd fastest ever 10k although I know that 3 of my races have measured just under the 10k and were a little bit quicker! Afterwards I found myself contemplating the Brathay Half Marathon for May 2016...  Meanwhile will my legs work for Parkrun tomorrow..