Looking ahead.

It's been a weekend of review and goal-thinking-about. The first review item is that last week, mainly due to my mad Wednesday dash, I topped 10 miles for the week for the first time. This is something I intend to build upon, mainly by adding run time and extending my loop somewhere - I don't quite know where yet though.

Secondly, I checked my resting heart rate on Friday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised at a nice low 58 beats per minute. I don't think it's ever been that low before, having sat between 68 and 72 for some years now.

As far as goals go, I'm trying to find a suitable 5K to run in the next month. This will mean some family logistical problems as weekends are packed with all manner of swimming, dance and theatre classes for the kids which I don't really want to interfere with. I can see, though, a 10K possibility on 16th June. This is the 2007 Stourbridge Stumble ("Stour" rhyming with "ow" - as in I hurt my head) the race for which I selected my moniker nearly a year ago.

From where I sit now, it's 8 weeks away and there are plenty of 4 and 8 week preparation plans out there to adapt. I've been looking at a couple of plans on Runnersworld.co.uk to give me some idea of what I need to do. This has meant that I actually need to understand what "strides" are and what Fartlek really means so I can decide whether or not they are going to be suitable.

Don't worry, I'm not about to go try some mad speedwork before I've worked more on my endurance and made sure that my ankles are up to it. However, it doesn't hurt to find out. I'll also be finding out a bit more about how understanding heart-rate can help me train. Again runnersworld tells me to find my maximum heart rate as follows:

"Do this by warming up, then running as fast as you can evenly for three minutes (ideally on a treadmill), then resting with two or three minutes gentle running, then repeating your three minute maximal run. During your second run you should get a higher maximum heart rate than with any other method - though use your heart rate monitor to take readings throughout it, as your heart rate may peak before the end."

I may try this in the next 2 weeks, which should then help me know what easy, medium and hard training heart rates should be.

As for Friday just gone, I had a reasonably good run and found my average pace was just under 9:00, a bit faster than I was aiming for. It was significantly easier the Wednesday though.

Fri: 3.40 miles, 30:14 minutes 8:54 pace. 5C

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On a non-running topic, my CISSP exam results from April 1st (it wasn't an April Fools trick!) came through, and I passed. I don't get any more detail than that - they just tell you pass of fail, but it's such a relief that I don't have to study and do the whole lot again.

All the best.

Mr Stumble.