Bradford Parkrun

Today was the first ever Parkrun at Lister Park in Bradford. Conditions were perfect: dry, pleasantly warm & sunny. The park which is better known to most of us from Bradford as Manningham Park was looking at its best: flower beds in bloom, well maintained paths & Cartwright Hall as impressive as ever. There were quite a lot of non runners around, but this wasn't a problem at all as the paths are 4 or 5 metres wide throughout the park.

I did a couple of laps of the course as a warm up (the race is 3 & a bit laps), then at the start saw plenty of familiar faces, including Andy W & his young daughter, Justin P, Josie H from Otley AC & Richard B from Bingley Harriers. There was a good attendance of maybe a hundred or so runners, which is good for a first event.

The pace was brisk as ever at the start of a 5k, after a few hundred metres I was in about 10th place with Justin not far ahead & Josie alongside. The problem with the course is the hill which comes after about 1k on the first lap, it starts of quite steep, then levels out a bit, but is continuously uphill for about 500m. This certainly makes the route much slower than it otherwise would be.

I worked my way past a few runners, including Justin, who is recovering from illness. The finish of the race is just after the 3rd time up the hill, with an extra incline added on for good measure.
I finished in 18:45 (unofficial timing, not seen the results yet) in 5th place. The time was nothing special, but considering it includes three climbs up the hill I was quite happy with my run.

After the race I joined Justin, Josie & Richard on a 9.5k warm down run, including plenty more hills & a good chat. There was a pleasant section through Northcliffe Park, which covered part of my old school cross country course. All in all it was a very enjoyable morning's running, covering about 18.5k in total including the race.

Just an easy run

Yesterday was a rest day, but I've still run more than 100km in the last 7 days, so today another easy run was called for. I ran a variation of the two bridges route, with an extra loop around Addingham, just over 13.5k. Pace was steady at about 5:10 minutes per km.

Tomorrow if I can persuade myself to get out of bed early, I'll go over to Bradford to do the new Parkrun course at Lister Park. I've not run around there for at least 40 years, so it should be interesting. The course looks to be better than the Leeds Hyde Park course, so it should be a bit quicker....we'll have to see. There is a short sharp hill up the side of Emm Lane, although I'm not sure whether we go up or down that.

Miles on the track

This evening's track session was 2X1600m (approx 1 mile) with 2 minute recoveries, 2X800m with 1 minute recoveries then 3X400m with 30 second recoveries, followed by optional 200m sprints.

I was running in a group with Mark I, Nick P & a guy from Otley. We ran the 1600m reps in 5:45, then the 800s in 2:49 & the 400s between 1:21 & 1:23. I was quite happy with this session as I felt very strong during the 1600s & whilst it seemed like hard work for the 800s & 400s, we were running at a faster pace. Following yesterday's 23k run & 10k walk, I was pleased to be able to run quickly this evening with no ill effects.

The average pace for the 6k of efforts was 3:32 minutes per km - comfortably quicker than my target of 18 minutes for 5k, so that's good news.

During the 400m reps, even though I'd speeded up from the longer reps, I was slowing compared to my running partners, so I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about finishing with some 200m sprints. I only did one of them, most of the rest of the group ran two. I managed to run 34 seconds which made me the slowest in the group (having been at the front for the mile reps). Coach Pete asked me to write in my blog that he was faster than me over 200m....well done Pete!

Out along the Dalesway

This morning I ran out along the Dalesway path. Even though it starts within 100m of where I live I don't often run along this path as it tends to be quite muddy, however, given that it's not rained for a few weeks I gave it a try today. The last time I ran this route it was thick snow..... no problems with the white stuff today, it was warm & sunny again.

I ran as far as the Cavendish Pavilion, before turning & heading back to Ilkley, covering just about 23km. It was quite a long run, especially a couple of days after the 20km run on Sunday, but I was only running at a steady pace. The route is almost all off road & fairly flat, so it made a pleasant change from running on tarmac.

This afternoon's activity involved a 3 hour dog walk along the canal towpath from Gargrave to East Marton & back. So I've certainly had sufficient exercise today. I'll pass on the Ilkley Harriers club run this evening.

Just an easy Monday run

The weather was perfect for running again today, so it was a pity that I was feeling quite tired after recent running and another long off road route was certainly out of the question. I opted to run the two bridges run, which is my regular shortish easy running route.

Pace was steady today: 5:15 minutes per km is about average for this route. It still surprises me that I can speed up by about a minute & a half per km when I'm racing or doing an efforts session, as it seems like hard work when I'm just out running at a steady pace.

This week should be a chance to get in some solid training, tomorrow I might do another longish off road run, then Wednesday is the Carnegie track session. On Saturday there is a new 5k Parkrun starting in Bradford, so I might go along to that & treat it as a fast training run.

Not quite as planned

When I set off for my run today the plan was to run around the course of the Ilkley trail race. I headed off by the river to the bottom of Middleton Woods, then up through the first section of the woods & across Curly Hill to join the actual route of the race.

On the track up to the moor I met Andrew & Alison B who were running in the opposite direction, they had just run around the trail race route. I reached concrete square, the conditions were perfect for running, warm, sunny dry underfoot & no wind. I then decided on the change of plan, Round Hill was looking very inviting in front of me, so I deviated from the trail race route at headed upwards. I'd never been up Round Hill from this direction, but I figured that there must be a path.

If there was a path, then I didn't find it! The ground became very boggy, alternating with big clumps of heather making running very difficult. I persevered and eventually reached the summit of Round Hill. From there I headed off along the ridge to Beamsley Beacon. The views were spectacular from up there, with the clear visibility: towards Simon's Seat & the Dales on the right hand side, Pendle Hill in front & Ilkley off to the left hand side. From Beamsley Beacon I descended to the road, then rejoined the trail race route from the log piles.

In total I ran almost 20k, most of it off road. I was running very slowly for most of the way, but I was quite happy with that given the number of fast sessions that I've done in the last week. It was a really pleasurable run & remarkable how few people were around, contrasting with the hoards of people who had descended on the park back in Ilkley.

Saturday morning hard run

I decided to have a day off from running yesterday. It would have been perfect conditions for a run, but I reckoned that I would benefit more from a rest day following two races & track session this week.

This morning I got up early to do the Ilkley Harriers 'Hard Run'. It's an interval session out & back along the Nesfield Road. Conditions were again really good: sunny, dry, no wind although the temperature was a bit low at 7:45 am. The last time I'd done this session, there was ice & snow on the roads.

We did 2X3 mins, 2X4 mins, 3X5 mins & 2X6 mins with regrouping & jog recoveries in between. I was running the efforts with Steve W who normally is faster than me, but he's training for the 3 peaks race at the moment, so I was a bit sharper than him today.

In total we did 41 minutes of efforts, covering about 10.7k, that is around 3:50 minutes per kilometre pace. I was quite pleased with that as the Nesfield Road is fairly hilly & generally I don't run fast early on a morning. In total I ran 15.7k.