So, my last week of bimbling along before my official 20 week training plan starts next week. The plan was always to to have an easy last week of ‘freedom’. Run if I wanted, don’t run if I didn’t…

I didn’t run Monday or Tuesday, legs still sore from Sunday’s 16. Despite this I felt quite naughty to be skipping a few miles. Had a great swim Tuesday morning, after 2,000m I spent 20 minutes practicing tumble turns & diving! Thursday morning I then managed to tumble turn on EVERY turn in the deep end! Get in! One of 2016’s goals hit on the line!

I actually only ran twice this week with a grand total of 12 miles. Wednesday night it was the Striders Christmas run taking in the blinged up & sparkly streets of Croydon as we ran. A fairly easy paced 6 miles followed by a pint in the club house. Merry Christmas Striders!

We wish you a Merry Christmas…

Then it was parkrun (plus warm up / cool down) on Saturday, aka Christmas Eve.

After my recent surprisingly good results at parkrun (massive PB’s + 1st lady at Roundshaw twice) I had I my mind that I wanted to do one last all-out effort before training for the NDW50 started properly.

Until this year my 5km PB had been run at Peterborough parkrun, a fast & flat course. Visiting the parents for Christmas was the perfect opportunity to go for it so Christmas Eve was marked in my mind as PB attempt day. I desperately wanted sub-23.

Oh hello to waking up on Saturday morning with a stuffy nose & impending cold… hmmmmm…

After a 1.5 mile warm up, it felt as if my nose was running more than I was… oh well, I decided to just go for it & see what happened.

Mile one 7:23 on garmin. Oooooh, bang on target pace for sub-23…

Mile two 7:21 on garmin. Oooooh, a little ahead of target pace… Can’t breathe, let’s just keep going…

Mile three, 7:21 on garmin, just 0.1 to go, ahead of target… Don’t stop now…

5km, 22:43 on garmin (official parkrun time 22:42) BOOM BOOM & BOOM! Hello shiny new PB, not just sub-23 but sub-23 AND some! And breathe… (quite literally…)

22:42, average pace 7:19. 77th out of 505 runners & 7th lady. Knocked 44 seconds off the PB I set at Roundshaw in October.

Though this was about more than just a fast time & a PB.

12 months ago, on Christmas Day 2015 I ran my first post-long-term injury parkrun on the same course. I’d been out for 18 months & had just started my return to running. I ran 28:04 & was absolutely delighted. (My pre-injury PB was 24:41, again at Peterborough, hey it’s fast & flat…!).

In one year since injury I’ve knocked a HUGE 5 MINUTES 22 SECONDS off of my 5km time. (And 1 min 59 off my pre-injury time).

How? What am I doing differently? How have I got so much faster? I honestly don’t know. I don’t do speed work (I think I’ve done 3 interval sessions this year) & I haven’t done any structured training since the London Marathon in April. As you know I’m injury prone so I’ve just been running, no agenda… I’ve (accidentally) lost a little weight, I’ve started lifting a little weights, I’m more muscular than I’ve ever been & I’ve slightly changed my diet. Has this helped. Absolutely no idea…

The agenda does start on Boxing Day, day one of official NDW50 training. That’s when it gets serious. But what a great sign-off to the base building stage!

I planned to do a Christmas Day parkrun but with the all out effort of Saturday & the lingering cold I decided to forgo the festive run in favour of a rest day ahead of D1 on Boxing Day.

So this is it. Training real starts tomorrow. In 20 weeks time, all going to plan, I will have run my 50 miles. And knowing me I’ll already be looking for my next challenge…

A planned easy week, a mere 12 miles with barely a hill worth mentioning but this shizzle is about to get REAL.