A long time away from running

I've been coughing and spluttering my way into the 2019 running year, much like a learner driver kangaroo-hopping down a suburban road, nervous clutch foot, a parent offering calm advice from the passenger seat of an ancient manual Holden.

A 20-day break in January was followed by a week's running, then another 33 days of zeros in the diary. The cause, a 'medical condition' which I'm confident is in the past. I'm up to 2 days of running in a row — yes! The details of those runs: 1k in 5:24 followed by 4k of easy walking at the Coombs Parkrun then on Sunday evening, 2k at 5:40 per km, puffing along with the expected high average heart-rate of 139 (my maximum is about 160).

My intention is to very gradually increase the daily distance over the coming weeks until I'm somewhere near a goal volume of 60 kilometres per week. My long-term racing goal for this year is to run 5k in a time yet to be determined, something 'respectable' — in the vague range of 22 to 24 minutes. I'll stick my neck out in due course, but even 25 minutes seems lofty when out of shape. I hope all readers are having a good 2019 so far — a shout-out to Mark, who recently ran a big marathon PB of 3:08, an excellent result, achieved with clever coaching from young Scott Brown. Until the next post, be well.

Lake Stakes runners celebrating after the weekly 6k handicap run on 1 January