A surprisingly productive weekend on a number of fronts. It was of course the last one before marathon training begins properly (Monday 20th is D-Day) and hit a couple of milestones.
I decided to head down to Parkrun for this first time in almost a year. Officially my last visit was three years ago, however I did make an incognito appearance last July as part of a somewhat unconventional date (that didn't go anywhere either, this seems to be a recurring pattern). In the end it went well and my time of 19:33 was only six seconds off my 5k PB - although on my Garmin it was actually 19:28. I could probably have been a bit quicker as well if I hadn't a) rolled out of bed about 45 minutes before the start and b) not started too far back in the ridiculously big crowd of participants.
My main reason for going was psychological. More than most, as any race approaches, I suffer from doubts about my ability to maintain a pace over the distance. So with the Stratford half next week, a quick 5k at about 25 seconds a mile faster than my target for then allows me to think that a decent time and consistent running is possible. Silencing those nagging doubts will be crucial as the miles stack up over the next few months.
Today I did my usual 10 miles circuit down the Rea Valley. It wasn't the quickest, but crucially I felt pretty fresh both during and afterwards. We'll see how I feel next week after the first week of proper training has taken it's toll.
On a non-running matter, I also made a big dent in my final University essay of the year. This was particularly pleasing, I've struggled and procrastinated over it for the past few weeks - but in my defence I think most people would struggle to sum up any aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict in only 3000 words...
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