I knew it felt like a while since I’d last done a training run when I was uploading the map for today’s route – I haven’t done a training run blog entry since May the 28th! With the large number of races I had through May and into June, I’ve been doing more events than training – and the short 3km training run I did with J a few days before my half marathon, I didn’t do a blog entry for as I was still trying to catch up on the Blaydon Races and get everything squared away at work for my being off for a long weekend! After getting the Newburn River Race out the way last Wednesday, I’ve now got a few weeks race free! I need it after how busy May was. I wonder if it’s possible for me to put any more hyperlinks in a paragraph?!
ANYWAY. With only 12 weeks to go until the Great North Run (or something like that anyway), J is getting understandably a bit nervous about the distance – her furthest run being 10.6k to date, and 21k can look daunting when you’re wanting to try to run the whole thing! So, time to start upping that distance! J likes to watch her watch a lot when she’s running – and can’t be trusted not to try and go for pb 5k and 10k times on a route – which you can’t really intend to do when you’re going out for a long run. I only really use mine for determining when my next water or dextrose break is on the long ones, but unlike J, I am not really competitive! When there’s noone else to race, she races herself!
I’d not actually told J what we were going to be doing today, just told her I’d pick her up at 8am (which I was late for, because you know, breakfast happened). She assumed I’d planned something horrible when in actual fact I didn’t decide what we were doing until I was in the car on the way to her house. I had three options in mind for helping her with her distance – she wants to see how far she can get around Grafham reservoir when she’s on her holidays in 3 weeks time, which is a 10 mile loop.
The first was to go along the Derwent Walk and back – moderately level going, turn round at the bridge at the 6.5km mark and get back to the car park having done 7-8 miles depending on where we decided to end our run from. This one was just for adding miles under the trainers as the terrain is moderately forgiving. That might be the opinion of someone who’s gotten used to running in Consett though…
The second option was to run from my house towards Consett and around the industrial estate, about 8-10k depending on if you do one loop or two, and as there’s several long steady but not too steep hills on this route, it would give her the opportunity to do a distance she was familiar with, on slightly tougher terrain to help with building stamina for the longer distances.
Option three took this a step further – Blackhill Parkrun. 5km distance which we all know she can do, but on the toughest terrain for hills I think she’s covered – which would also be good prep for the Butterwick Hospice Run at Hamsterley Forest, which I can say from previous experience, is not going to be a flat 10k in any shape or form. Personally, I have yet to actively enjoy Blackhill Parkrun, but when I’ve done it I’ve really noticed a difference in my running afterwards – it’s definitely a contributing factor to a step-up in my pace and I need to go back again if I want to get quicker again! I want to be able to do it in under 30 mins if possible. Every running trainer will tell you that 5km of hills is worth 10km of flats, and any flat race of any distance is a synch in comparison! It doesn’t make it easier to do the hills at the time, but it really does help in the long run!
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Blue Runnings 