Parkrunners anonymous

[IsThatTrue]

Hi everyone. I thought we could do with a new shiny thread.

All runners are welcome here :)

A massive well done to all runners this week. I managed to get out today and did 3.5 miles in 32 minutes. It made me feel slightly less guilty about missing parkrun on Saturday (although it is the first since August so not too bad).

Hope you make it standingonlego, I have a course so won't be at mine :(

lego lovely to see you! I was about to send out a search party for you! How the devil are you?

kimmi nice to see you too! Great buggy running!

nightsky so pleased to hear you are on the mend.

No PR for me this weekend, I have to be at an OU tutorial. My tourism plans have also had to go on hold, and work has been so blooming busy I haven't been running (not helped by leaving my running gear on the train yesterday ). Luckily I was wearing my trainers so have "only" lost a top, bottoms, socks and sports bra, most of which were freebies/bought in sales and in any case quite worn out. Time for new running gear .

Hi all

Not running PR this weekend, doing my first real 10k on Sunday. So am volunteering, spurred on by all you lovely ladies on here. I am going yo be a backup bar code scanner. Looking forward to being able to watch some of the run, as someone mentioned previously, seeing different running styles.

Did another big pb last week 23.36 so very happy with that now hoping that I don't embarrass myself at the 10k.

Help please - I've just done my fourth park run and absolutely love the atmosphere but my time is awful. I just seem to be a total plodder and can't get lower than 33 mins which means I am always at the back of the field with the dog walkers etc. My local run is very flat and fast, how do I increase my speed? I run a couple of times a week in between but similar times definitely no faster. What should I be doing?

Helllooo!!!!

My Improve your 5k course finishes next Wednesday so I'm running this weekend and tempted to see how close I might be to a PB. The guys running the course reduced my target from 25 minutes to 26 to take into account the fact that my hip is currently quite sore and that I missed 2 weeks of the course thanks to having full blown flu. That would mean running steady 8:28 miles for the whole thing which I did - albeit in 2 2.5km stints - last Wednesday so it should be do-able. I can't decide whether to go for a PB this week and then potentially give myself a hard time and a chance of not making it again next week or thinking 'a PB is a PB no matter where it comes on the course' and just going for it while I feel good and potentially giving myself 2 shots at it. What do you think?

Tips from my course LBDD - the most used phrase so far has been "to run faster, you have to run faster" - which is a very un-useful way of saying 'you're going to have to push yourself and it is probably going to hurt'. It's true though, I plodded around our parkrun for months doing 30-odd minute runs and it wasn't until I decided to chase someone I knew was slightly faster than me that I realised that I had been taking things far too comfortably and I really could go faster if I just pushed a bit harder. Sometimes it's a mental block.

Work on strength - we've been doing squats, planks and leg raises to work on our leg and core strength and it has really helped. I tend to find I run faster after a week or so of 'The 30 day shred' as that is really good for strength.

Work on going fast for short periods and then slowly make them longer - we've been doing short, fast 200m/400m/800m intervals and slowly increasing them until we did the 2 x 2.5k quick runs this week. We've been working on keeping our pace steady too - there's no point going out too quick and dying for the last part of the run, steady speed is much more effective.

Hill training - will make you stronger and will also improve your technique which can only help.

It all seems to be helping so far despite me being ill or injured so often. I'm hoping to keep it up now and improve on my time some more. I really wanted to crack 25 minutes at MK parkrun (which sin't a PB course) so if I can keep chipping away, I might even make it. Another phrase I hear a lot is "go longer to go faster" and I think my half marathon training - such as it was - has actually helped too. My muscles feel far less tired after 5k now they're regularly running further which means I am able to push a bit harder on the shorter distance. I've got another half in 4 weeks so hopefully the continued training will continue to help too.

I think I'd go for it blatherskite, you'd be gutted if you picked up a bug next week and couldn't do it at all. Sorry to hear about your flu :(

Parkrun fail :( Last nights "few quiet drinks with the school mums" has needed serious recovery time

Catching up on thread - hello OhOne I am still alive

Need to get back on board with my running - though skiing has left me with strange hurt big toes as I had 2 days with too small boots which seem to have done something more serious than i thought at time. They just feel weird and fizzy - no black nails or anything. Can you get a toe version of shin splints????

30.32 for me today, not bad. It was a different course without the big hill so nice and easy. Worst bit was the small, badly-supervised children weaving around in front of me.

Anyone else got their result yet?

I did my first volunteer today - back up timer.
Don't think I messed anything up less than 60 runners though so that made life easier.

We had a course record number of runners today - 456!

I pretty much equalled my previous PB too by running in 26:25 according to my Garmin. I have just looked up my official PB time and it's 26:24 so I'm hoping the button pressing guy was on the ball this week else I'm going to be very disappointed. Still, it's a LOT closer than I have been in a long, long time so it's good progress whatever.

Still...1 second!

Hello, can I join pls?
I did my first ever parkrun today feeling v smug.

I am only on wk 7 of the c25k plan but thought I would attempt it as friends were doing it.

I had to walk twice but kept going the rest of the time - aided hugely by two lovely friends who ran with me (much slower than their real pace) and kept encouraging me.

I was v impressed by how many people turned out (500 I think) and how well organised it was. And how supportive and friendly everyone is.

I am a total newbie to running and have no natural talent, but I love it. I think my time was about 37mins which I know is very slow but it gives me something to work on once I can actually run the whole course. I look forward to following this thread and maybe in a few months time I will even be able to take on board some of the 'how to go faster' tips from Blatherskite

500, wow! Did you do the one in Poole? That's meant to have a massive turn out. Well done on your first Parkrun, that's a brilliant time- enjoy your well-deserved smug feeling

Yes it was Poole - didn't realise it was well know for being so popular!

Most Parkruns normally get a couple of hundred people. No idea why Poole gets so many more- there must be a lot of runners around there! There were 129 at my local one this morning and that's a fairly average turn out.

Thanks Blatherskite, did another park run this morning and came in at 32.58 so at least under 33 mins now. Unfortunately I think you're right and I just need to push myself. It's in my head that I'm just a plodder but there's no reason really that I can't go faster, it just hurts so I don't do it I think.
Onward and upwards. I'm volunteering next week but will try and run in between a few times. I will get under 30 mins if it kills me.

Hello, please can I join in? Did first ever park run today and loved it. Very slow (34 mins) but am very old (nearly 50) so was perfectly happy with that!
Love how they put all the stats up after the run. It's brilliant.

Hello to all parkrunners old and new Some great running today

LBBD I had the same problem. I managed to run sub 30 minutes when I spotted someone in front of me who I knew had a pb that was slower than mine. I tracked her round & overtook her just before the finish! I think it's true that you do need to push yourself. Some weeks I'd finish & think "that was an easy run" then be disappointed with my time. It was obviously easy because I wasn't running fast enough!

Button pressing man was rather slow and my official time for today is 2 seconds over my PB

Have been trying to console myself with knowing that I was the 11th lady home (out of 166) and 2nd in my age category but those 3 seconds are really grating. Going to have to try harder next week.

hello, I've done one parkrun on my own (30 mins) and one with the dc's (7 & 5). TBH that was more of a parkwalk with a bit of sprinting, jogging and sulking but we made it to the finish line.

We're going to try to go every nice saturday we haven't got parties / activities on. I may have been overheard telling them that if we start now they can be up with the leaders by the time they're 18 .

DS only went and came third in his age group this week [jealous] with a time of 21:52.

Soooo close Blathers - you'll nail it next time.

Well done to junior night

Rosy I do that too. There's a lady who is just a tad faster than me, so if I'm feeling up for it I chase her.

Sounds good Meglet

Hello ladies! Have slipped back into lurkerdom as due to work taking over my life parkrun was the only time I was getting to run. Life is pretty stressful at the moment too so my times are getting slower and slower! It's true what was said up thread, you've just got to push yourself. I don't have the mental strength at the moment so have decided to not beat myself up about it but enjoy the fact that I'm running and outside.