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+--- Thread: Goal to Improve Parkrun (/Thread-Goal-to-Improve-Parkrun)
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - NeilJ - 11-12-2025
Good morning Gavin, due to commitments yesterday I decided to run this morning, Thursday, which still gives me a rest day before parkrun Saturday.
Run started with a 3.5K warm-up and already was feeling a bit fatigued without being able to establish why. I changed the course to run on a straight flat tar pavement as opposed to the out and back dirt road run last week.
Herewith the 3 x 1K intervals:
1stKM – 5’04 @ 151 Ave BPM - Struggled through the middle segment of this run to get leg turnover.
Rest 1:37 heart rate not down sufficiently hovering around 110 BPM.
2ndKM – 4’49 @ 152 Ave BPM – Felt a little better, more even paced than 1st interval.
Rest 3’13 heart rate will not get below 110 despite the longer rest segment.
3rdKM – 5’30 @ 153 Ave BPM – No energy, struggling to breathe, glad to have that over, despite the poor time.
Walk ran the 1.2K home feeling quite spent. I don’t really know why I couldn’t get going over the final kilometer within the 5'00 mark. Overall compared to last week this session felt so much more complex. Health wise I am in good shape without any obvious symptoms that would explain the performance. I am intrigued as to why I couldn’t get my heart rate down to the 100BPM mark which occurred within about 90 seconds between intervals last week. I would like your opinion if you have one on that, feel free to see my Strava data.
Post run feeling tired, but no niggles, aches or pains.
I will be most intrigued to see next week’s performance on this run.
Thanks Neil.
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - TheEd - 11-12-2025
HI Neil .. you need to recover from maybe all the week's build up of fatigue. Not to panic as the body should recover
let us know how you feel when you awaken tomorrow, so we can look at the ParkRun as an easy run
TheEd
ps.. look at your routine of running over the last 10 days and sleep and stress levels to better understand the fatigue. Take care
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - NeilJ - 11-12-2025
Thank you, will let you know on the morrow re condition.
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - NeilJ - 12-12-2025
Hi Gavin just a brief checkin re- health and wellbeing as requested, which seems to be absolutely fine. There are no niggles, no unusual fatigue nor any malaise that seem to have any influence from yesterdays experience on my final leg of the small interval session. That seemed to just be one of those anomalies that occur, without diagnosis nor explanation from time to time.
If you do see this in time then it would be great to get some advice on how to approach tomorrows Parkrun. If not then I will err on the side of caution, perhaps something like week one, Aero 1st 3K, then pick it up over the final 2K.
Thanks Neil.
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - NeilJ - 13-12-2025
Good morning, just a brief update from Parkrun which actually went okay. Ran fairly comfortably just inside 26 minutes, felt easy, slowish start and very gradual pickup over the course. After Thursday I didnt know what to expect, so very happy with this mornings run. I think that perhaps the 12K last monday may have been a bit much too soon. Dont know, but I reckon we are pretty much back on track.
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - TheEd - 13-12-2025
Hi Neil .. if you have not been doing aerobic runs for quite a while it will take longer to recover.
Nice to hear you had a positive run
little by little it will all come together
we have to balance the recovery from the aerobic run, no need to increase beyond 12km
the Wednesday session is the one session that we must be the most cautious and patient with. You mustn't try push the session but try to utilise your best form to hit the targets.
This Monday pop in a 8 - 10k run (keeping it in the aerobic zone) and then Wednesday repeat the 1km session (no need to run quicker - even if feeling better)
then you can look to the Saturday ParkRun and run as you feel
enjoy TheEd
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - NeilJ - 15-12-2025
Thank you Gavin for your most considered response.
I unfortunately only saw your latest post after my run this morning, so Im afriad I went longer than your recommendation of between 8 - 10K run and ran 13K this morning in my attempt to get closer to the magic 15K. I felt pretty okay and kept my heartrate within the Aerobic zone and running time of 1:26'40.
I must agree in hindsight that it may very well be the longer Aero run last week that was the culprit responsible for my poor interval performance. I think that as I am no longer used to going long, it took its toll on my performance as I was still a bit fatigued from the Monday run. Remarkably when I was running,"properly", these things never effected my performance this dramatically and I am now learning through you that fitness is measured by so many other metriics than just pace or speed which used to be the case for me. It makes such a lot of sense especially as an older, less exercised runner that not only recovery takes longer, but sessions have so much greater inpact than they once did.
I will keep the Wednesday interval session within the previous attempted target zones and report back.
Kindest regards
Neil.
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - TheEd - 15-12-2025
Hi Neil .. not to hassle, its all still a process.
Remarkably, as the aerobic improves, so will your recovery between sessions, the glue, helps in so many different ways
let's see how the Wednesday session goes .. the pace is still not faster but getting the pace right and then working on that experience going forward
all good and enjoy
TheEd
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - NeilJ - 17-12-2025
Good morning Gavin, ran my 1K Reps this morning herewith the results:
Started with a 15’30 warmup jog with a few light pickups to start. Felt really good and manifested positive energy after last week’s disaster.
1st K: Kept really good form, concentrated on posture and stride. Breathing easy and ran through in 4’41 HR@ 152 BPM. Felt strong at finish.
2nd K: Focused on running form and rhythmic breathing on stride. Kept good form all the way through to the finish in 4’38 HR@154 BPM. Did require an extra 30 seconds to get my heart rate back to around 100 BPM.
3rd K: Started strong to halfway and felt shoulders starting to drop and heavier legs. Had to really focus to hold my shape upright and focused massively on breathing. Picked up a bit over the last 200M with quite a bit of effort to complete in 4’49 HR@155 BPM. Breathing heavily across the line.
Jogged the 1.19k home @ 7:42/K my HR remained high after the session at an average of 139BPM. i dont know what to make of that
Compared to last week’s session this was like chalk and cheese. I felt so much more positive going into the first KM. I didn’t feel that I was overstraining on the 1st two k’s but did have to work through the 3rd one to maintain form to the end. Very happy with this session.
Thanks Neil
RE: Goal to Improve Parkrun - TheEd - 22-12-2025
HI Neil, I truthfully though I had replied to this post
most happy to see the 1k session is working out
will chat more about the 1k plans as we progress
I gather you ran your ParkRun and I look forward to hearing further
TheEd