39 Days of Running begins

My annual pre-birthday running game starts tomorrow and as I'm turning 39 in June, I'm in for 39 consecutive days of running. I started this a few years ago when I turned 35.

As before, minimum distance is 5km or a 30-minute run.

I'm starting my game a bit early this year as I leave for Expedition Africa on 3 June so I've timed this one to finish on 2 June.

I haven't been running a lot over the past two months but I've been running really well and feeling really good.

At the Parys parkrun two weeks ago I ran my best 5km time - probably for the past 10 years. I took ONE WHOLE MINUTE (plus a few seconds) off my previous PB set a few weeks earlier. As I hadn't run any parkruns inbetween so this came as a surprise. I actually thought I was running slower but apparently I was rocking it. I'd hope to take a few more seconds off... but a minute! And I was first woman overall. Yee-haa.

I'm going to throw in some speed work too (as I haven't done any!) and I hope that over the coming months (probably more than just a few months) I can get my time down to the 21/22 minutes that I used to run when I was about 22 - in the days before adventure racing and ultra running. A number of older friends have shown me that it can be done; that is is possible to hit PBs on distances even two decades later. They're definitely my inspiration.

My Parys parkrun PB (and overall parkrun PB) - set 11 April 2015.

My birthday game... I need this. The focus on time. The focus on my running.

Sub-24 mins, here I come.