Tag Archives: Kingsway

Early summer speed

by Ben

Spring is generally considered to be marathon season, while the summer is dedicated to shorter distances. With both marathon and half marathon distances out of the question for me this spring thanks to yet another winter injury, I always knew that my first races back would be quicker, shorter distances.

My ‘training’ started again gently in March, with a number of runs aimed mostly at building some confidence and clocking up some miles. But I struggle to run without definite aims in mind, and there was no way that an autumn half marathon was going to get me going in the short-term. So, I had a look around, considered how far I was running (up to 4 miles) and decided to book the Brean Down 5k on 3 April.

In all honesty, this didn’t end up being a goal, so much as part of the journey. For those that don’t know the area, Brean Down is a headland between Burnham on Sea and Weston-super-Mare in north Somerset. The race starts by the beach and climbs up to the top of the headland, runs along and down to a fort at the end, before climbing back up to the peak and dropping all the way back to the beach. Off-road. It clearly wasn’t a course on which to get a PB, but that’s fine, as I was hardly in any shape to get a PB anyway.

1604 Brean Down 002

Grimace, grimace, smile for camera, grimace.

The day before the race, we travelled up to Kingsway parkrun, where Lolly kindly ran with the buggy to allow me to put down a more realistic benchmark for my training; 21:59. Two minutes off where my next target, and more like three minutes off where I’d like to finish the year. But at least I had an idea.

At Brean Down, I ran pretty well; my legs were tired from the hard effort the day before, and they certainly weren’t prepared for the hills, but I enjoyed pushing myself around, and getting the buzz of the race. It was also pretty nice to get a medal to add to my collection! Time was pretty irrelevant, but I came in quicker than I’d been targeting, finishing in 24:56.

After that race, I built my training up more, putting more structure in place. While I still wasn’t running from an actual training plan, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to be doing. A couple of runs in the evenings, parkrun, and a “long” run. Which was 5.5 miles of hell that first week. No idea why, it was just a bad run.

1604 parkrun 002

“This is so easy, I can do it with my eyes shut.”

Another chance to set down a benchmark followed soon after; the first race of the Yeovilton 5k series. I’d been meaning to race in these for a while, but this year I let myself give it more importance, and I’m planning to use it through the summer to benchmark my progress. I’m going to be pretty pissed off if I don’t go sub-20 at one of them!

I don’t tend to run all that well in evening races, though I do really enjoy them. Still, I managed to prepare relatively well, with a shorter day at work, and a mid-afternoon meal. I didn’t really know what to target, other than quicker than the 21:59 I’d run at Kingsway. With that in mind, I changed the settings on my watch to km pace (I usually use miles) and decided to aim for around 4:20 per km, which would give me a time of somewhere around 21:40, which seemed reasonable.

My pacing was dreadful. Perhaps unsurprising, given that the races are known for having a fast field. I started too far forwards, and found myself drifting back for the first kilometre. After that I steadied myself in the pack, but obviously everyone around me was pacing badly too, and we struggled to maintain our pace. All that said, I was chuffed to come around in 21:07, within a minute of my PB.

After Yeovilton, I had two and a half more weeks of training before my next significant benchmark, the Glastonbury 10k. But I’ll cover that in another post…

parkrun tourism: Kingsway

by Lolly

A whole 3 weeks after our last parkrun tourism, we were on the road again – this time heading up to Kingsway in Gloucestershire.  This was a pretty logical choice for our next trip – just off the M5 and (from reports we’d received) buggy friendly.

The first thing we noticed was that the course information page for Kingsway was really helpful.  Plenty of information on parking and the facilities available.  We also copied down the directions – just as well as the sat nav tried to send us to a different part of the postcode.

Kingsway parkrun is based in a park right next to a sports pavilion.  When we arrived it was raining, but happily everyone congregated inside the pavilion so we were relatively warm and dry.  It did, however, mean relatively noisy conditions for the new runners/tourists briefing.  But the key information was confirmed: 3 laps, starting on the path near the pavilion, about half the course on grass or trail path.  Erm, what?  When I agreed to buggy run this one I’d been told it was mostly path.  In fairness, Ben did give me the option of swapping, but it seemed silly to do so at such late notice.

After a late decision on outfit choice (hoodie and short-sleeve t-shirt) I headed out to join everyone else.  With the number of people already lined up, I had to take quite a wide route on the grass to get to the back of the pack.  My buggy running confidence isn’t that great, and there was no space on the path further forward, so I was kind of glad to have to start at the back.

Kingsway1

With a rare spot of non-buggy tourism, Ben decides to attempt a sprint start

Of course, once we started I was a little less happy to be at the back.  The path wasn’t all that wide, and so there weren’t many early opportunities to overtake.  We’ll blame the path, not my lack of experience.  We quickly moved onto tarmac cycle path and I managed to get into a bit of a rhythm.  Then a couple of turns later I could hear a marshal saying “Watch out for the step”.

Great.  A step.  Actually, it wasn’t too bad.  It was just the move from the path onto the trail section, and by taking the corner a lot wider than everyone else the step could be easily avoided.  The ground was bumpy but pretty solid.  At around this point there were a couple of dogs jumping at each other, and so while trying to keep the buggy on course I was also trying to avoid a dog that kept jumping in front of us.

We soon got a view of some of the faster runners, giving me my first chance to wave at Ben.  The course turned onto a cycle path section, although I opted for the grass in places to overtake people. After another turn we moved onto a field, which was much smoother than the trail section and so a little easier technically, just tiring.

After some more cycle path we reached a similar gravel surface to the start.  This section would have been easier if I hadn’t been trying to take my hoodie off without stopping.  At Longrun Meadow, when you go past the finish there are swarms of people ready to take excess clothing from you.  Here I had to keep an eye out for an appropriate location, which turned out to be a bench.  Right in front of a photographer.

Kingsway2

Don’t even know where to start with this one…

And so lap 2 commenced.  With the field having thinned out a little, the going was a little easier.  That is, until the faster runners started coming through.  Being lapped was inevitable, but I was very conscious of not wanting to get in the way.  In a few places I deliberately slowed down to let runners pass me in a wider spot – and then regretted losing momentum when trying to speed back up.

Kingsway3

Navigating the turns and wishing I’d done more upper-body work

As I reached the path after the field, runners were lapping me thick and fast.  Including Ben.  This gave me the small relief that once I got back to the start I could drop off the buggy.  Also a relief for our daughter, who hadn’t enjoyed my awful steering on the bumpy ground.

So I started my third and final lap feeling strangely light, and trying to remember how to use my arms.  It was like running a completely different route.  The (many) turns were wider, the ground was firmer, and overtaking was a breeze.  Strava tells me the third lap was 2 minutes faster than the second.

I’d made a conscious decision before the run not to push myself too hard, so I had a little left in the tank at the end.  Which I obviously wasn’t going to use to finish hard.  Until there were a couple of people right in front of me.

Kingsway4

I honestly don’t heel-strike…

After the run there were drinks and cake available for purchase in the pavilion, and quite a few people stayed around.  We stopped to chat for a bit, and made use of the changing facilities before we headed home.

Kingsway parkrun was a more interesting course than I’d expected, with the many twists and turns giving it more character than 3 laps might suggest.  There were quite a lot of marshals on course, including a fair few juniors, and all of them were amazing in the support they offered.  The only question now is where to try next…