Benchmarking my running progress (Week 8 - 23 to go)

On Sunday's run Glenashdale track with the dogs

 I'm one of those people that need a goal and also need to know how far I've run and how fast.  I think one of the reasons for this is my lack of ability to see my own improvement – I need to see it in black and white – so I have a short route that I use to benchmark my progress.  It’s a lovely route on a forest trail that no one else seems to use, probably as it goes nowhere.  It starts with a steady imperceptible incline, a good steady downhill, then what I think of as a 3 tier uphill, with a steepish start, breath catcher in the middle and a steady last bit, before turning to retrace my steps down the hill catching my breath again before the last up. The final kilometre is that ‘imperceptible incline’ that now propels me forward for a sprint finish! So good mixed terrain.

When I first did this 10 months ago I couldn't run up the hills and the route took me just over 29 minutes, now I can run the distance and the hills and complete it in 25.34m.  Unfortunately most of that improvement was several months ago, but I'm still shaving the odd second off so it’s going in the right direction.

More of Sunday's run - great scenery

Benchmarking aside, I've done slightly less this week than planned but Laura (Run Arran Coach) gave me a great get out, when she said ‘less is more’ and counselled against doing too much too soon. So I eased off a little and concentrated on those hills and my technique a bit this week, with a few core exercises thrown in.

Weeks activity 28thNovember 4^th December:

Saturday – No training

Sunday – Trail run 5.37km/203m height gain

Monday – No training

Tuesday – Coaching session, hill reps 8.54km

Wednesday – No training

Thursday – Benchmark & additional run 6.71km /172m

Friday – Mixed exercise, very short bike ride

(Goatfell Race 15.5km / 870m)