So it’s been a funny year. With a sub-3 marathon in December 2019 I went on to a 50K PB in January and a 1:21 half in February, which I was super happy with back within 2 mins of my half PB. Then Covid.
I hit the trails. Mainly at 2pm while my toddler napped. Initially I was thinking I’d be able to do some trail and fell races in the autumn. Now it seems like racing is really not going to happen for a bit.
Baby Felix arrived in July and my running goals turned to 5K as getting longer training runs in was increasingly tricky! I started working with Paul Fletcher as my coach , he’s recently won the world 800m, 1500m, 10,000m Vet 60 gold at The European Championships Italy 2019. I work best when coached, and being able to just go out and enjoy my runs without thinking about it too much is importnat to me at teh moment. I’ve set Paul the challenge of helping me improve my 5k time.
Or at least to maintain it as sub 19. Training time is limited with 2 small childeren and a full time job.
I’m realising that this is the time to really push through away from road runing and focus on trail and fell. I love the offroad and I’m not going to ba able to do 60+ miles a week for a while, which is what I will need to have a serious attempt at marathon PB again.
So, the long term goal is to get into shape for the Bob Graham Round. It’s inspired me since I was a teenager, and I’m 42 in a couple of years (the age Bob was when he fiorst did it). I’ll need to build up to that with lots of offroad hilly running and walking. I need some intermediate goals along the way and I’m still searching out what they can be in the covid world. Perhaps some time trials on classic fell routes.
January has come around and I’ve had 2 months of less training due to sleep deprivation with the new baby. Putting Family first was what I wanted to do. But I still need to run, it helps me destress, keeps me from depression and makes me an all round bettter dad. It also helps me do my job without being too grumpy.
So 19th Jan a reset 5K. I gave Sabrina a 3 minute headstart on a trail 5K time trial route several people have been using in Stroud. I managed 20:49 and Sabrina ran 24:04 so I just overtook her with half a mile to go. It felt like a good solid 5K effort. I was in the low 18s on this route back int he summer. So a good indicator of what I’ve lost and what I can back to relatively easily with regular training.
I’ve created the 5 valleys challenge marathion route and will be setting up my training to target that inm the spring. I’kll then be hopeing to go to the lakes and run some classic fell race routes solo or with a friend or two. These goals cant really be cancelled. the dates can move, but the motivation to train for them will remain.
Mortirolo outdoors 