In two months, on 14 December, I’m signed up to run in the Christmas Cracker 2025, a 10 km race where runners are encouraged to wear fancy dress. Earlier this week, when I was wishing the son of the friends who I am running it with a happy birthday, it dawned on me that I might need to do some training for it.
My last run was on 28 September where I managed 2.8 km before I had terrible pain in my heel which might have been plantar fasciitis. The last time I ran 5 km was on 17 August and my last parkrun was on 26 July. That all sounds fairly bleak but I have been doing a couple of CrossFit sessions each week and I’ve been doing some regular Zwift rides so my fitness level hasn’t slipped, just the volume of running.
This morning I was awake by 8am and, after some brief thoughts about what might be valid reasons to stay in bed a bit longer, I got up and decided to go and join my local parkrun. I was slightly nervous about doing 5 km again after such a large gap and after the last run ending in pain but it felt better than just setting off around the local lanes to see what would happen.
Much to my surprise, apart from a flawed “tactic” it went well. My last parkrun time was 35:28 and I hoped to maybe get below 35 minutes today. The start was a bit of a scramble as usual and but as each kilometre ended my watch would tell me my pace and they were around 6:30 rather than my usual seven minutes. But then, during the last kilometre, I got carried away… On a final uphill slope I decided that it would be a good idea to pass the person in front of me and managed to push too hard. When I got to the top I was completely blown up and needed to walk for around 30 seconds to recover. Inevitably my unwitting nemesis jogged past me, probably wondering what on earth I was doing. However I got going again and finished in a surprisingly good (for me) 32:13.
So the good news is that my fitness and pace has improved thanks to CrossFit and Zwift and running performance is not entirely dependent on running. I had heard that Zwift complimented running and now I’ve experienced it for myself.
My next plan is to take myself off for a run in the next few weeks and see if I can run around 7.5 km. Then I’ll be much happier about the idea of running 10 km at a more relaxed pace with friends. And yes, I’ll also be aiming to do another parkrun and get under 32 minutes. I wonder if I can get under 30 minutes during the rest of 2025…