Week of 27th May - Run in the Sun

After Nick put suggested the idea that this should become a team blog, I decided to join in and record my own running experiences.

I'd been taking it easy after running the Horsham 10k a few weeks ago, and this was my first week back to a regular(ish) running schedule. My first run was a simple 5k on Wednesday morning before work, along my usual route: I ran a mile to the sea, along Hove promenade for half a mile and then back the way I came (and yes, I will be casually interchanging miles and kilometres willy-nilly- normally I'd just stick to miles but as I'm training for 10ks at the moment it makes sense to use kms). This route is downhill to the sea, flat along the promenade and ends with an uphill climb towards home, so it has a decent selection (is range a better word?) of gradients, making for a good training run.  Its main drawback, however, is the almost ever-persistent sea breeze, which can make running along the seafront an unpleasant experience, especially when the wind is blowing against you.  The run itself went well: the weather had begun to improve that week and it was sunny, which is always preferable to running in the rain.

Distance (km): 5.00
Time (hh:mm:ss): 00:21:13
Pace (min/km): 4.14

My second run of the week was another 5k on Friday, along the same route. This went much the same as before, if slightly slower.  However, as it was only about 10 seconds per km slower, I'm happy with the consistency between my two 5ks.

Distance (km): 5.18
Time (hh:mm:ss): 00:22:46
Pace (min/km): 4.24

My final run of the week was on Sunday, and it was my first 10k since the race. The route I ran was an extension of the 5k route I had been running earlier in the week- I simply carried on down the promenade until I had run 5k, then turned back. The sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This made it a much warmer temperature than I've been used to running in for a long time (especially after winter felt like it lasted twice as long as normal...), which made me a lot hotter than I'd like to have been, and I felt like it was adversely affecting my run (it also made me wonder how runners manage it in countries where it is always hotter than here).

Upon reflection, the heat may not have affected me as much as I had thought- I managed to run both the first 5k (21:08) and the second 5k (21:17) about as fast as my first 5k of the week, and a bit quicker than the second. This gave me a 10k pb of 42:25, which I was pleased with, and I learnt that I should probably get up a bit earlier at the weekend to run if it's going to be hot.

Distance (km): 10.02
Time (hh:mm:ss): 00:42:36
Pace (min/km): 4.15


Next week I plan on running much the same, as I don't have any longer races coming up to train for.  There are however a few shorter races I'm keeping my eye on that I may enter, and these sorts of runs are ideal for that.