The last time I posted was the day before I went to run a Parkrun with the aim of setting a benchmark. I didn’t have much in terms of expectations nor was I too fussed however if I had to give a ball park figure, I had predicted myself to run the 5k in 27 minutes. My last “comeback” to running was in 2022 and I ran it in about 25, it’s been another couple of years of my body deteriorating so take off another couple of minutes?
I deliberately started quite far back in the group to naturally pace myself, the paths aren’t too wide at my local Parkrun so there would people in the way stopping me from sprinting off. Passing through the 1k mark in 5:50, I felt very comfortable and by this point we’d spread out enough that I could start to stretch my legs a bit. Speeding up gradually, I ran the remaining Ks roughly in 5:30, :20, :10, and :10, finishing in 27:02.
I was very pleased with how I ran it and I was all out at the end. Running with a negative split is definitely preferred to a positive however I can’t help but think that I could have gone faster if I’d paced it more evenly. At the end of the day though, this is just a benchmark so I’m not too bothered.
So I’ve got a benchmark now that I can track my progress against but my goal at the moment isn’t to speed this up. Obviously I want it to but that’s not my focus. For now, my focus is to get back into a routine with running and so far it’s been going well.
I’ve taken the approach of keeping all of my runs very easy and comfortable. I’m no expert in running training or anything but from previous knowledge built up from online resources, I believe the best thing I could be doing now is simply building a base with easy mileage. My heart rate zones were setup previously so I’ve been running to them, keeping in zone 2 or below.
My plan is to do a 4 week block with a benchmark at the end of it. I’m thinking that it’s enough time to see some progress whilst not being too long without a checkpoint. The first 3 weeks I’ll build up my runs, stretching the distance bit by bit. The final week I’ll run less to take a rest but then do a Parkrun to test myself against the benchmark.
A week for me has been made up of 4 runs so far, one on each of my work from home days (Mon, Wed, Fri) and another on the weekend. Mon and Fri have been and will stay as 5k. Wed is the middle distance run which today was 8k, and the weekend is the long run which I’m planning on running 12k for this week.
I’m going to keep this first block made up of solely easy running whilst I’m getting started again. I don’t feel the need to extend myself too much even if it may mean a faster time come the next benchmark. As I said before, it’s not my main goal, but I think it would be a little naive to say that I don’t have a rough time I’m aiming for - I’d like to do it in the 25s. Perhaps with some better pacing that was achievable last time out but I’ll have to see.