5th Annual World Wide Festival of Races from Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

This morning I ventured out to run the 5th Annual World Wide Festival of Races. This was a race with a difference it being a virtual race and I merely went out of my front door to take part.

Although I was the only one taking part I was also aware that all over the world this week end I was joined by 742 other entrants from 42 different countries.

I had chosen to do the Zen Run 10k named after Adam Tinkoff who is better known as the Zen Runner. Anyone who listens to running podcasts will be well aware of the many podcasts that Adam has produced over the years including Shock of the News and Hear Zen Run.

I am still building up my base mileage after a long period of injury and whilst I am running pain free I have found in my training that I am generally running a minute a mile slower. This is largely due I think to having put on 14lbs or a stone in weight over the 3-4 months of inactivity. I have also been training according to my heart rate since I returned to training in a bid to listen to my body and so reduce the risk of  further injury.

I have built my mileage back up to around 25 miles a week but I certainly don't feel I have much stamina at the moment though I put in my first 10 miler recently. It is going to be a long slow road over the winter to regain full fitness but the first step is the hardest.

As for this morning I haven't been training very much at all at a heart rate zone above 151bpm which using the Adidas Micoach is yellow zone running. This is the anaerobic threshold where you feel the "burn" and is  hard paced running. All of my running recently has been at the more easy green and blue zone pace and my average heart rate for my running in September was 140bpm.

The weather was very good,warm and sunny with little wind as I set out on a circular run around the villages of Fornham.  I was happy with my time for this run which was 54.10 for the 6.2 miles which is an 8.45 pace. My heart rate averaged 150 . It was probably my slowest ever 10k and was slower than my normal training pace prior to injury back in April. I ran the Stowmarket Half in March at an 8.15 pace for a 1hr 48 min time and the Breckland 10k in 47.19 last year so it shows just how much my fitness and pace has declined!

Nethertheless the positives are that I ran a race (only my 2nd of the year) and after so much time injured I wasn't sure that I would run again. I can eat in to that time making some progress over the winter. I shall stick to something like a half marathon training programme to build stamina over the winter. I plan to build into this training some regular runs at the mile , 5k and 10k to test my fitness and progress.

The calm before the storm

Looking at my half marathon training programme week 6 is comparatively easy compared to what is coming up with a marked increase in mileage. So far I have kept to the programme though I have miscalculated the no of weeks there are until the half marathon as I should have been following a 12 week schedule.

 This means I actually have one extra week ! I have been a bit uncertain on what I should do on my training plan either to repeat this easy week or suddenly up the mileage again.

What I have decided to do is include a long run this week end and replace the scheduled 6 miler with a 11 or 12 miler instead. This will mean this week still has a quality run and then make next week the additional week 7  the easier week though on the Sunday I have booked my self in to do a 10k race at Bungay Suffolk .

Just hope that the weather is good and not too windy. I can treat the Bungay race as a fast tempo run and will be my first race since June 09.

Races at Bungay are always very well organised , with good hot food at the end and supportive marshals . The local club are known as Bungay Black Dog