Garmin Scales

Grumpy_chap

Been a sluggish month - after the half at the beginning of the month, just things kept cropping up so not been out much.  Away this weekend, but all set to return to it from Thursday.

Grumpy_chap

Another sluggish month - I am getting more speed on short sprints but struggling with stamina for longer runs.
Anyway, this has been a weekend off exercise so should be fully refreshed for next weekend.

Grumpy_chap

I'm back 

After a really prolonged sluggish winter period when I found it a struggle to get moving, I have suddenly found my mojo so achieved two PB's for the year in the past two weeks and this week was only 20 seconds off my PB of all time.  Hopefully I can keep up the momentum and smash that PB!

Grumpy_chap

WOOHOO - What a month!

Despite the uncomfortably hot weather I have taken progressive steps off my year-PB and brushing an all-time PB which I am hopeful of achieving in the coming month.

I also entered a 10k and - despite the extremely hot weather and feeling exhausted, a few minutes off my PB for 10k - I achieved second place in category so £140 prize money.  Absolutely amazing - my first ever prize of any kind in running.

My VO2 max has returned to my all-time best - maybe if I can keep the trajectory, I will be able to achieve a best-ever VO2 max...

I was persuaded to start using the Strava app.  So far I have found it to be the most pointless tool ever.  I will leave it for this month to see if it grows, but currently minded to delete it.

Grumpy_chap

Well, this month continued on an upward trajectory, maintaining my VO2 max through the whole month and achieving 3 top-10 finishes in my local ParkRun.  Apart from one very wet week, my times have been near PB until yesterday when I smashed my PB by 26 seconds and broke through the next minute-barrier, so I am on top of the world.  

The TV mentioned that, for over-50's, it was very good for cardiovascular health to have blueberries on your breakfast cereal, so I have done so since 23rd July.  Now that I achieved a result, I will presumably have to stick with the blueberries.

I still find that the Strava app is of limited benefit - they offered me a free one-month trial of the subscription which means every activity results in an AI generated commentary. 
The Strava-subscription element that is nice is the prediction on times for 5k, 10k, half-marathon and full-marathon.  I was not that convinced about the accuracy, but for 5K on Friday, the prediction was 3 seconds away from what I achieved on Saturday so there could be something to the algorithm they use.  The 10k prediction is about a minute quicker than my best 10k, and the marathon prediction seems realistic (though I have never run a marathon to compare).  The odd one is the half-marathon prediction suggesting 5 minutes quicker than my half-marathon PB - that is a lot of difference.
I can't see that the prediction on achievable times is really worth £9 per month.