Sub 25 - and beyond!

Good conditions for my local Parkrun today, the ground was wet and a bit muddy in places but apart from that it was good.  Got a time of 25:37.  Not a PB but still my second best time to date, so I am happy with that!  At least I'm not getting worse.

Tested the new Garmin out for the first time and I love it.  Very pleased with it.

Hope everyone else got on ok today.

Well done ils. Conditions at my parkrun were not great as the light rain we were promised in the early hours of Saturday morning was somewhat heavier. The parkrun event director warned of slippery conditions and lots of puddles so no PB to today. My time of 21.57 is nearly 1 minute off my parkrun PB set in September (in perfect conditions).

I seem to bring the rain with me wherever I run the moment. Will probably not be doing a parkrun next week as doing a 10K on Sunday morning. Fingers crossed it wont be raining! 

Good to hear you like the new Garmin. I have a Garmin Forerunner 305 which I'm very happy with but will be upgrading soon.

Hi all. Love to join this thread as I haven't managed sub 25 since 2008 when I managed 24:20. This feat was entirely down to my daughter's cajoling and training regime for a 10 mile race later on. It definitely seems to do with getting good interval training under your belt., I started running regularly in 2005 after a Race for Life 5K when I was 50. Since then I found my local parkrun atnd am now addicted. Have built my distance up over the years to do the VLM this year. Would love to get back to the early days and go SUB 25 again!

Welcome Becky. Good luck with your sub 25 min 5K target. I'm sure you'll get there with the right training.

Agree parkruns are addictive. I did my first one in March this year and am now up to 32!

Well Done all parkrunners!

I was a grand total of 2 seconds quicker  at Wythenshawe on Saturday than I was 4 weeks ago
I have always known that I am not really a "morning person" and have decided to give up parkruns as a bad job - although I will first confirm my theory by running a solo 5k time-trial (at a reasonable hour of the day) within the next few weeks...

Hi Daz, I agree with you about parkruns not being at an ideal time for a fast run. Like you, I'm not a 'morning person' so struggle to get going so early in the day though I am better now than I was went I started doing parkrun early this year.

I was a bit deflated after my last parkrun being best part of a minute off a PB but recently found a website called runbritain.com where your parkrun times and other races are assessed and you can get a handicap score. What is good about this is that for each race/parkrun you enter they take into account the conditions on the day and your performance is assessed not just taking into account your time but the prevailing conditions on the day.

My adjusted best run was the parkrun in September when I set my parkrun PB of 21.01 but my parkrun on Saturday was voted 2nd best due to the challenging conditions. My overall best recent 5K PB of 20.52 was only rated 4th best, 

right, this is it!
Preston 10 Mile race on Sunday
weather forecast is perfect
going for sub-80

plan is even pace/increasing effort, so look out for my report of a string of 7:55 miles...

Thanks for the encouragement Geoff. Will be starting some structured training in December with my daughter who's a PT, for a 10k race next March so should get the 5K pb before then. With the age-grading taken into account I will be really happy to achieve it. I've been doing parkrun for some time now and only need another 5 runs to reach 100.

Happy with my 5K time at parkrun today as I shaved 41 seconds off my previous time 3 weeks ago to finish in 28:26. Still some way to go though to get sub 25 but confident I'll get there before my 58th birthday next March

Have just checked the parkrun results table and it has me down for 28:10 which means 57 seconds faster than 3 weeks ago.  Aiming for sub 25 again because I was 25:21 this time last year. Haven't dipped below 25 since 2008. 4 years older at my time of life makes a big difference but I will do it!

Well done Becky. If you managed 25.21 just last year you should be able to go sub 25 again with the right training and providing you stay injury free. I'm sure you're daughter will be able to advise you on what sort of training you should be doing.

I warmed up for my 10K race today with a parkrun yesterday which is probably not the best preparation. Time was 21.32 which is about 30 secs off my parkrun PB but was very muddy and hard work on the grass sections.

Todays 10k race was much better as was 4 laps on the path of a local park with just a short 100m ish section on grass.  Quite pleased with my time of 44.04 which is my best 10K time for a long while.

Doing another 5K race in London (Hyde Park) in a couple of weeks. Hoping to beat my September time of 20.52.  Have a chance as again all on the the paths around Hyde Park with no slippery muddy grass to worry about. 

Daz's Preston 10M Race Report
perfect race weather: cool, sunny, no wind
plan was sub-1:20, so aiming for 7:55ish miles which should start off feeling easy but require increasing effort...
7:36 - oops!
7:56
8:03
8:19 (slight amount of uphill)
7:59 for 39:53 at halfway
8:00
8:14
8:14 (oh deary me, couple of dodgy miles, 21 secs over, need a couple of 7:50's to finish, and it's that blasted "uphill" mile coming  )
8:06 (not bad, but need to finish in 7:30ish  )
7:32 - held this last mile together remarkably well - this "training" lark really works! - looked down at my watch just after crossing the chip mat (had started it as I crossed the mat at the start) to see 1:20:01 so anxious wat til official results went up... paged nervously down the results... past 1:20 gun time... there's my name... 1:20:14... chip time... 1:19:59

Well done Daz. That last inspirational mile fixed it for you!

Thanks Becky, although I really wish I hadn't had to go that fast on the last mile! would've been better to push miles 7 & 8 a bit more to avoid any need for last minute panic stations
even so, it's still one of the best paced races I've ever run - although I guess we all yearn for that "Perfect Race" don't we...?

Hows it going in here? Missed running this year, working hard rehabbing my achilles (turned out it wasnt just my calf) and hoping to be back in the new year to running normally then maybe a race by summer.

Hi Akie! glad to hear you are working your way back - hope it goes well...

I'm not planning much in the way of speedy interval/5k-type stuff

my next flat exploit will be Wrexham Village Bakery Half Mara in February - it would be cool if I could extend my recent 10M 8min/Miling to achieve a sub-1:45 Half

I "jogged" the last 2M of today's lunchtime run at 8:35 pace, so looking promising already

Hows the fell/hill running being going this year Daz? I'm no longer a member at Wilmslow RC as I've not been running and its a bit far from me in Manchester now so not even been to any of their races this year.

Hope to do a parkrun in the new year

It's been quantity over quality this year, with about 30 fell/trail events
been a bit slow/overweight recently, but have big plans for 2013:
Sub-1:45 Half Mara
Bob Graham
Lakeland Classics Fell Race series completion
UK Ultra Champs series completion
so keeping busy...

I've heard about the Bob Graham and what a huge undertaking that is, you'll have to keep me informed as to how your preparations go for that!!