Saturday - Parkrun

Well that was much better today! I met Darren and Ben at the pool at 6:15am for a very easy 5km warm-up to Curl Curl. Felt completely relaxed and quite good. We got there about 20 minutes early, so just kept my jacket on and walked around. Didn't even bother with strides this morning. The gun went and the plan was just to stay with Ben, knowing that he would be either a sub or right on 17 minutes. So I shadowed him for the first mile, and to my surprise it felt really comfortable. So took the lead at this point, and had quite a bit in reserve. Decided to push it, and before I knew it I was solo. Never had that feeling at Parkrun where I had a bit in reserve most of the way - generally it is straight into survival mode at about 3km. Got to the final stretch and just kept my head down. Crossed the line in 16:44/45, so a massive improvement of 31 seconds from last weekend. Ben finished strong right on 17 minutes, with Darren coming home in a PB of 17:12. So great runs all around. In fact, it was the first time since my sub-16 back in 2015 that I felt that I could have done some reps or efforts postrun. I didn't though! Ran back along the beachfront nice and easy for 15km all up. Don't know where today came from, but I feel like it was a mini breakthrough, just what I needed to get my confidence back again. Still a way to go, but I'm now on the right track. Really looking forward to running with the HuRTS squad on Tuesday (can't do next Thursday due to an annoying presentation). The only thing that I have changed in recent days is that I have completely reverted back to exactly what I was eating back in 2015, my best year of running. Perhaps that was the secret all along?