Parkrun newbies and trying a sub 30 - keeping each other motivated! 🏃‍♀️ 🎉

I'm doing my first HM in October too! Have been lurking on this thread and decided to jump in. Are you doing the Royal Parks in London by any chance?

This is a great thread, so thank you. Ive been doing parkrun for about a year. I got a PB in January and have no idea how! Other than I helped set up that day, so maybe the extra warm up did some good.

I have done a few 10k races and am doing my first HM in October. Although I run a lot each week, I have never done more than about 11k. I plan to do 12k as my long run this week and build my long run up by another k each week. I am really nervous about it too, but am taking the next 12 weeks of training very seriously.

You won’t have lost all your fitness in a month. I had to have a month off for injury and the first time I ran after that was a 10 mile race. was I as fast as usual, no, did I finish it, yes.

juts take it steady and don’t beat yourself up if you’re a bit slower than usual. It doesn’t matter, but it won’t be like starting from scratch again.

Please don’t be put off by walking some it just do it anyway. Or try a different one. Even if you walk this week you will probably walk less next week but it will be worse if you don’t go this week. My home parkrun has hills and I usually walk up them. It’s fine and definitely still a parkrun.

I had been doing parkrun since end of March after I finished a C25k program. I was getting times between 31-33 mins depending on which course I did. I continu running with the running club I had done the C25k with. Come June work got a bit hectic and I just couldn’t face going out to run. I have now not done parkrun for a month and feel like I’ve lost all progress I made. I want to go next Saturday but am nervous of not completing it. I have a thing where I have to run it, if I walk bits it doesn’t count. I feel like my legs are so weak.

Wow a half is impressive! I'm still training for my 10k in October. I started early because of having a holiday in the middle!

I would have thought though that if your young and healthy and train properly, a half should be fine.

I'm old and only started running last year, so need to ease myself into things and I'm not sure if my body or mind could go that far!

A half distance seems daunting when you haven’t run it before, but it’s actually very achievable with training. What’s the furthest you’ve run so far and when is the half you’re looking at?

When would your half marathon be? Have you done a 10k? Can’t really advise as I haven’t started training yet but I am thinking my long runs will need to be 2 -2 1/2 hours towards the end and am also very nervous! I am planning a 10k target race in January and then to build from there towards May with fours runs per week. (parkrun, long run, intervals and shorter ‘recovery’ run) plus weekly body pump classes for strength from September.

I am now committed for May, hopefully the fear will kick in and I will get some good 5K times in the next 10 months as I put in the training hours. Absolutely no running on my holiday (it’s not even a parkrun country 😢) so I dread to think what my time will be like when I get back to parkrun on 25th July.

@parkrunEnthusiast do it! Focusing on longer distances meant my 5k and parkrun times just naturally got faster without giving it any thought. I did do a 10k race first though before the half.
Now I’m focusing a bit more on increasing my pace it’s not as much fun! Give me a longer slower run any day 😂

I think I am going to sign up for a half marathon next May. It’s a bit terrifying but maybe the longer runs will help with my parkrun times.

i am going on holiday this week so missing the next two Saturday mornings.

Also having read through your earlier posts @Lemontreeinthecity, if I’m trying to run fast and aiming for a PB I listen to higher tempo music to spur me on, I save podcasts for longer, slower runs.

I also get very hot, very quickly so wear the minimum I can get away with. In this weather just a vest and shorts. I’d rather be a bit chilly at the start. Sometimes take a zip up top in cooler weather as it’s easier to take off on the move and tie round my waist.

I think lots of people do parkruns and either add on miles before/after or use the parkrun as the middle part of a longer run. I’ve done it at the end of extra miles so I still finish with everyone else and get my time.

If you’re running all out to get your PB you need to really slow it down if you want to try 10k though. Your long runs should be much slower than your 5ks but they will definitely help you build your engine which in turn will make you faster over shorter distances.
My easy/long runs can be 2-3 minutes per mile slower than my 5ks.

You need to practice different speeds for differed distances. Are you using a training app? Nike Run Club is good at guided runs over different distances and is free. Runna is also good and what I used for my half marathon training but you have to pay.

Thank you! Was really pleased, it’s a flat course and it wasn’t as hot as it has been lately. Well done on your time 👍

Well done @JantoDec! 1min 12 off a PB is massive!
I did ok yesterday, 33:30 which is ok considering it was still hot and it was in my top ten best.
Sadly I have to give PR a miss next week, but good luck to everyone else!

Hi. Can I join please? I’ve done 15 parkruns, most of them this year and been chasing my 5k PB for a few weeks now after focusing on longer runs for my first half marathon at the end of May. Happy to say I did it this morning knocking 1 min 12 off. Just shows that some longer runs, interval training and strength training definitely helps with speed.

Hope everyone had a good park run this morning and enjoyed being out there moving no matter what the finish time. I always tell myself how lucky I am to be able to go out there and just run, even if it’s the last thing I want to do sometimes!

Not quite so hot by the looks of it tomorrow, although definitely on the wrong end of the chart if you are like me and prefer it to be sub 10 Deg!

I don't think I'll be getting a PB tomorrow, but I will aim for between 33 and 34 mins and to be faster than last week.

I have upped my running days this week and last week so hopefully building up the fitness for both the sub 30 Parkrun and a 10k!

Too hot and too busy for a sub-30 run but I was on time (for the first time since posting here). Despite the heat, I had a great run!

Exactly the same here. A very slow 35 minute parkrun, but my achievement is also that I didn't stop

Nowhere near 30 today, far too hot. But pleased that I ran the whole thing despite lots of temptation to walk. Pancake flat and on tarmac but took me longer than my usual hilly route usually would!

My current thinking is it's going to be way to hot for me to get anything like my PB this Saturday, let alone a sub 30! I'll probably just take it easy again and wait for a cooler Saturday morning!

I have started training for my 10k now and am so motivated that I even went out running before 7 this morning and nothing will normally get me up that early! I quite enjoyed it..!