2023: Refresh & Renew

Last year just didn’t quite cut it with regard to running goals. As tends to be the way for me, off the back of a solid block of marathon training (for London in October 2021, I lost motivation. While I do love a plan and will follow it to the letter when I have a big goal in mind, I’m also quite capable of taking my foot off the gas and coasting. And as we all know …

Consistency is King

So that’s the goal for this year! Let’s see if I can reach that goal and maintain it.

A bit out of practise, I’ve decided to revert to my trusted friends, Pfitzinger and Latter. I’ll follow the base mileage plan for 10 weeks to build up to 30 miles, then I’ll look at a 5k specific plan and see if I can get those parkrun times back down a bit.

Paper trumps Strava

I’d be interested to know who’s with me on this. While I do enjoy Strava, nothing beats being able to look back on paper for consideration of what made a race go well. Why was it that a parkrun was surprisingly good or a half marathon went better than expected?

Look back at the weeks prior to the big day and you’ll pick up on elements of training that are effective (or otherwise) for you. With that in mind, I was delighted to start my new diary for the year.

Establishing the Baseline

Setting off for Aberdeen parkrun today it was a balmy 9C according to the Met Office. I therefore opted for shorts and t-shirt, or that was my excuse for dressing ‘light’. However, the signs were recognised (by Bruce) and we both knew I was going for a time today.

I made my way towards the front of the pack (not too close though) and started my watch as the Run Director shouted, ‘3, 2, 1, GO!’ Wanting to run by feel, rather than the clock, I changed my Garmin to the clock time, only registering the splits each mile.

I felt like I was running within myself. It was definitely harder than I’d usually go, having become quite fond of 9 – 10 minute miling, but at no point did I feel like I was ‘eyeballs out’. I was therefore pretty chuffed to finish in 23:30. Most definitely something to build on.

parkrun Goals

The goal now is consistency as stated and let’s see where that takes me. I don’t plan to sign up for any races as there are some uncertainties in the year ahead (including a second hip for my bionic man), but I’d like to get the parkrun times down a bit and that feels manageable. Then maybe I’ll consider a longer race (10k or even half marathon). Sticking to my guns this year though – no more marathons.

What are your goals for 2023?