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RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 26-06-2026
I ran my parkrun Saturday in 25’18.8 felt reasonable and quite content with my time given the past few weeks and inconsistency.
On Monday, I ran the longer run up in the mist, in the vineyards, distance was 10.47 in 1:03’43 with an AHR of 148 BPM. Really enjoyed my early morning run in the cool mist of the day, felt very comfortable and maintained good form.
I ran my parkrun Saturday in 25’18.8 felt reasonable and quite content with my time given the past few weeks and inconsistency.
On Monday, I ran the longer run up in the mist, in the vineyards, distance was 10.47 in 1:03’43 with an AHR of 148 BPM. Really enjoyed my early morning run in the cool mist of the day, felt very comfortable and maintained good form.
This morning did my little hillwork session as follows:
1.86K warmup in 12’58.7 @ 129 BPM
1st segment 174M in 53.2 @ 130 BPM
Rest 1’38
2nd segment 182M in 59.3 @ 131 BPM
Rest 2.00
3rd segment 178M in 52.0 @ 132 BPM
Rest 1’38
4th segment 182M in 58.5 @ 138 BPM
Rest 2’31
5th segment 178M in 52.2 @ 137 BPM
1.7K Cooldown in 9’46 @ 138 BPM
Overall the session was good hold strong posture on all of the segments.
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 26-06-2026
HI Neil .. it looks as though your aerobic runs are becoming easier .. how is your recovery the day after the hill session .. are you finding it less impactful?
enjoy your weekend
TheEd
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 27-06-2026
Thanks Gavin, I do think that my Vo2 max numbers are finally starting to improve. I can certainly feel this on my longer Monday runs especially with the vert gain, if I’m on the farm in the very hilly vineyards. Why this has taken so long I can’t really explain, except possibly that I just need to accept that I am becoming an old fart and these things are not as immediate as they once were.
Interestingly I think that my quads and calves are beginning to finally get used to the hills again and I think that my recovery is improving both in terms of the muscular and respiratory systems.
This can be somewhat evidenced by my Parkrun this morning in 24’54.9 on my standard home course. This was a tough run but I felt good enough at the start to give it a go, here are the Km splits.
1K : 4’54, 2K : 5’02, 3K : 5’04, 4K : 5’13, 5K : 4’39.
I managed to hold a reasonable pace through the middle and normally fade on the last hill between three and four K, although that was the case today, I knew that when I went through the 4K split in 20’13 if I could use the downhill and final flat 200m then a sub 25 was possibly on. This was really hard and I felt pretty knackered across the finish but got the job done.
RE: Parkrun Improve - phil - 30-06-2026
Hi Neil,
Well done in your sub 25min 5k. All the hard work is starting to pay off.
Keep well
Regards
Phil
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 30-06-2026
Hi Neil ..this is pretty impressive as it is now 2 x under 25 .. so it wasn't a one off .. you always run hard Neil
try to recover even while doing the training this week and hopefully the easy Monday run is in fact easy
most proud of you
TheEd
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 10-07-2026
Thanks coach for your words of encouragement, I am happy with the progress and its with great acknowledgement to you for your consistent inputs and tweaking of the program that I have been able to not only keep going but continue improving.
Just a quick weekly catchup, apologies for the lack of posts:
Saturday parkrun went okay and I managed to get in under 25 minutes again in 24’44. Whilst I’m grateful to slip in under 25 minutes I feel that this remains a struggle and I am having to over exert myself. I do think that the next goal is to run consistently in sub 24’30 but with greater regularity.
On Tuesday I ran my tempo run of 10.45 in 1:02’46 with a AHR of 145 BPM. This may seem high for a tempo run but I ran over my regular farm run with an ascent of 316 vert meters. I truly enjoyed this run predominantly on trail and farm runs and felt really invigorated at the finish back home.
This morning I did the hill session comprising 5 X 100 m hill sprints in around 50 seconds each.
I am looking forward to parkrun tomorrow and will report results next week.
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 10-07-2026
magic to hear Neil
simply don't run each parkrun hard, rather do a session on alternate weekends, so maybe work the hills or set-up your fastest last 1km. So the idea would be to run conservatively and then set your fastest last 1km. Mix it up, run maybe your fastest 1st km or maybe the 3rd km .. find out what each section requires .. this way you take away the stress as well as leaning more
till next week and a grand weekend to you
TheEd
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 13-07-2026
Just a quick heads-up from Saturdays Parkrun which ended up being a bit of a disaster as I woke up late, rushed through, forgot my watch and managed to only run 4K on the actual route as I joined the run late. I did run to and from my car which was parked around 800M away so I did more than complete my required 5K. I have no idea of my time but I do think that you will be glad to hear coach that it was markedly slower than normal. That’s the way it felt anyway.
I am more than happy to heed your advice and alternate the effort on a weekly basis on the Parkrun Gavin. I think breaking the run into sections is a great idea and run them almost as separate segments as you have suggested. This will require a bit of discipline which I will need to find. Thanks for all the support and advice its much appreciated.
RE: Parkrun Improve - NeilJ - 21-07-2026
What a strange week last week was, it started with running my longer run Tuesday comprising around 10K in the Vineyards. The run went very well and going over the top of the hill I felt really good and decided to nail a decent time to my recent history. It was great to float over the top and run free and feeling unencumbered down the hill. My recent record time for this run now stands at 1:02’10 in 146 BPM and I felt that I could have gone even faster. I know Gavin that you have as an old fart warned that I err on the side of caution I just needed to test myself on this challenging course which I have used as a Tempo run for over 16 years now.
On Friday due to external commitments I ran the speed session as follows:
1.03 Km in 7’00.3 @ 123 BPM. Warm-up to the beginning of my session.
1.02 Km in 5’07.1 @ 144 BPM. 1st segment felt fairly sluggish although I think my form was reasonable.
2.06 Km in 10’17.5 @ 148 BPM. The 2Km segment although only at around 10’17 felt good and where previously I limped across the line during this run every fortnight, I finished strong and felt that I was completely in control of the run and specifically my breathing.
1.03 Km in 4’49.4 @ 149 BPM. The final run was a cruise and I ran it in full confidence and felt good at the end of the segment and the session.
757m in 4’55.5 @ 135 BPM. Cool down and run home.
Saturday Parkrun ran in 24’22.5 at 149 BPM. Toeing the line felt like every other Saturday there was no great intention to necessarily run any faster, nor ambition to create a breakthrough. Herewith is a breakdown per Km:
1st K 4’43.6 @148 BPM. Start felt normal and I was a bit surprised on reflection at the time.
2nd K 5’03.7 @ 150 BPM. Km 2 contains the 1st of the big climbs and I did feel a bit lethargic at the top.
3rd K 4’54.3 @ 155 BPM. Km 3 is run predominantly on the flat and I found this quite challenging.
4th K 4’58.0 @ 157 BPM. Km 4 the same hill 2nd time around and had to hang tough over this one.
5th K 4’41.8 @ 157 BPM. Km 5 picked up the pace over final K to finish really strong.
This was both a breakthrough week and specifically breakthrough Parkrun, which really is the main aim on my way to get back to running sub 24 minutes eventually. The irony is that although I am really chuffed with the result it wasn’t absolutely intentional this week. I remain Gavin as do you a little perplexed as to how my mediocre midweek speed work translates into a better than expected or anticipated Parkrun. That I’m certain will be unraveled as we continue to attempt to improve these times. Thanks as always for the coaching and support. I couldn’t do this without you.
RE: Parkrun Improve - TheEd - 22-07-2026
Neil .. it is so wonderful to see that you are beginning to get results
just keep the consistency as that is what improves things
little by little you should edge towards feeling like a runner again
well done
TheEd