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+--- Thread: Parkrun Improve (/Thread-Parkrun-Improve)
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 20-03-2026
hi neil .. I identify that your resilience achieves your parkrun time but your 1k speed is not where it should be naturally
don't panic, it actually shows where you are stuck .. we continue as we are doing and then we do slight taps to the next level
as long as easy runs are not above zone 3 and that this distance increases slowly without problems we are moving in the right direction
the hill training is gold, so don't run them hard
we are getting there
TheEd
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 25-03-2026
Thanks Gavin for the update and advice. You are absolutely right that I do feel a little stuck as can be evidenced by my 1K times which somehow just won’t come down. As a result obviously my goal Parkrun time won’t budge.
Saturday ran Parkrun in 25:14.4 and felt pretty good and in hindsight probably could have gone a little faster to crack the sub 25. I am struggling on the hill sections of my Parkrun, which is a bit frustrating as in my previous running life I was a pretty decent hill runner. I went through several years of trail running on the Cape mountains quite effectively.
I think you may well have appoint in that I am running the hill repeats too hard every second week. I do feel that improvement in times are somehow not far off and I just need to maintain the consistency and something will give.
I ran my slow longish run yesterday as I was busy with nasty work stuff on Monday. Chose a slightly different off road route across the local farms to the golf course and back. Run was 12.19 Km in length in 1:23 with my average Hr @ 130 BPM. It was quite refreshing to run an alternative route and I was quite elated at the finish.
I will run the hill session tomorrow morning.
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 26-03-2026
Ran this mornings hill repeats session:
1. 177M @ 50.8 103 BPM, Felt very easy going into the 1st run straight from my warmup jog.
2. 180M @ 53.1 124 BPM, Worked on using my arms without over exerting myself to keep the pace steady.
3. 179M @ 53.9 129 BPM, Had to focus on knee lift and keeping my head up to maintain posture.
4. 172M @ 52.1 129 BPM, Felt remarkably good at end of segment and contemplated throwing in an extra one.
5. 179M @ 53.7 130 BPM, The 5th run would normally be the final so just focused on maintaining consistency & not speeding up.
6. 180M @ 53.0 130 BPM, Ran the 6th segment at exactly the same pace as the rest of them, was very chuffed with the session.
This morning was all about slowing the hill segments down, I did run slightly longer than the previous sessions by about 30M per hill which were originally around the 150M mark, this just coincided with a good visual start and end point on the road. The fact that I could throw in a 6th hill run without too much stress or over exertion was brilliant.
I think coach, that slowing these repeats down and maintaining the consistency rather than running them too hard, will definately be more beneficial as you have advised.
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 28-03-2026
Hi Neil .. I do believe you are developing in the right direction now .. the sessions are building on consistency
next week's interval session you can work with the following: 1k + 2k + 1k
look forward to seeing the results from this session
How are your longer runs working out?
onwards TheEd
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 30-03-2026
Good morning, Saturday ran Parkrun in my usual 25:42, perhaps fractionally slower than normal. I left my watch at home so had no updates and just ran on relative feel. Felt good across the line and was fairly happy with run, even though slightly slow.
This morning I woke up early and got out the door just after sunup, was just in a great mood and feeling strong for a change. I have struggled through so many of these longer runs that this was quite refreshing. What the reason for this was, I remain uncertain but I’ll take it. The part that won’t please the coach is that I went out slow, up the hill @ around 6:20/K but came back down @ 5:29/K. I know I am supposed to run this entire run within Zone 2 but I just couldn’t help myself. Gavin I felt great for a change, something that’s been missing from my running for a few years now. I looked at my watch, considered the temptation of the predominantly 6k downhill all the way home and just wound it up as I went. It felt fantastic to have decent leg turnover and had no pain or exhaustion when I finished.
Whether this is a breakthrough or just a culmination of not running any of these runs outside of Z2 and waking up feeling so positive, I think only time will tell. Apologies for breaking with the discipline of the program but quite frankly just for a little reprieve it was so worth it.
I will certainly try the little pyramid of 1k + 2k + 1k this week and will report back.
Just one question, I'm assuming that I am attempting to hold the same 1k pace through the 2K segment in the middle?
Thanks Neil.
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 01-04-2026
Ran the revised speed session this morning of 1k + 2K + 1K. Initially, thinking about this session was a bit intimidating, I remember when I was running properly back in the day and used to look really forward to Wednesday evening speed sessions, that is no longer the case. When the coach suggested upping my game from 3x1K to including a 2K segment in the middle, I didn’t approach the session with much enthusiasm. I spent two days considering how when I was barely running a sub 5min Kay without collapsing in a heap, how I was going to manage a 2 k segment through the middle.
This is how it went:
1st KM 4:44.0 @ 150 BPM. Felt a bit weary halfway through and had to focus hard to maintain my form to comeback hard in the 2nd half. Finished okay and started preparing mentally to run the 2k segment.
2 KM 10:31.0 @ 149 BPM. I knew that I needed to start conservatively to get through this and at the 1st 500M I felt pretty good and saw that I was on for around 5:15/K if I could just hold on. ¾ of the way through and on checking in I realized that this was far better than anticipated. I finished the 2K feeling relatively chuffed with the run, although thought that I could have actually gone a little harder and possibly got under 10:10 for the 2K.
3rd KM 4:47.6 @ 147 BPM. Expecting that I was going to be completely knackered going into this run, I started fairly slowly and picked up the pace incrementally across imagined 200m sections. I finished running at what felt like 90% of max capacity. I was quite surprised to see the time when I crossed the line.
Overall I felt that this was a kind of mini breakthrough session, it went far better than I initially anticipated. I think I spoke myself into running the 2K segment in a pretty conservative time as I didn’t know how it would go and approached it with quite a bit of trepidation. It will be interesting to see how this session goes next time around, approaching it knowing what I know now. I still am at a bit of a loss as to how I manage to run my Park runs at around an average pace below 5:05/K on a fairly hilly course yet struggle to run these 1K segments in under 4:45/K. Having said that I do definitely feel there has been an improvement, it just hasn’t yet related into quicker park run times.
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 02-04-2026
HI Neil .. thanks for the chat yesterday .. on we go
TheEd
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 12-04-2026
Please forgive the silence last week, I just got really distracted with nasty work stuff.
There was nothing terribly exciting to report.
Last sarurdays Parkrun was run in 25:34 and felt quite tough.
Mondays long one I ran on the farm above my house, it was the tough 12K through the vineyards, the time was 1:21'26 and it was really tough on the massive uphills but the view so worth the effort. Although my average HR may look high at around 135BPM it was largely due to the elevation gains.
I ran the hill repeats on Thursday rather than Wednesday due to other commitments:
1. 176M @ 51'2 132 BPM
2. 179M @ 50'4 137 BPM
3. 180M @ 52'3 135 BPM
4. 177M @ 53'8 134 BPM
5 175M @ 50'4 134 BPM
6. 175M @ 52'6 133 BPM
I felt quite lethargic during this session and I think its reflected in my HR readings, which would indicate that I may have been overreachung but thats not reflected in the times.
Yesterdays Parkrun probably indicates perfectly the kind of week that I had from a running perspective and that is that I have just felt quite tired and that with my time just shy of 26 minutes yesterday with my AHR at 145 BPM shows exactly that.
I look forward to a reset this week as I have mentally wiped the slate clean from last weeks lethargy.
To new beginnings.
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 13-04-2026
HI Neil .. i have been following your runs .. have you stuck to doing those 3 little exercises?
have you the 1k . 2k . 1k session this week?
will look to see if I can catch you on whatsapp
TheEd
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 14-04-2026
Hi Coach,
Yes i did my Friday exercises.
Tomorrow is 1K - 2K -1K.
Chat soon
Hi Coach,
Yes i did my Friday exercises.
Tomorrow is 1K - 2K -1K.
Chat soon
I ran yesterday morning’s longish run up Polkedraai and back my goto 12K which seemed to take forever. I felt fairly sluggish on the run which I did in 1:15’30 at an AHR of 139BPM, which seemed a bit high for the effort. I went out feeling quite positive until I hit the hill at 3K and for some reason slumped back into the same lethargy that I felt last week. The next 9k seemed to take forever, but the runs done and in the book.
I felt quite stiff this morning almost like I had run much further or far faster than I did run yesterday. I am uncertain as to the source of this recent malaise, as I generally feel well outside of running.
I will check with speed session tomorrow to see how things go and report back.