How not to train but still PB - twice

Badbark

I’ve just found my old running training diary from 1996. It’s really made me chuckle to see how little I knew then but could still run decent times (for me). I gave up running in 1997 and only started again a year ago and my times are well down although I’m 40 now. I ran a 1:36 half marathon last year and a 42 minute 10k time trial 2 months ago.

I’ve put all the times into a spread sheet and added them below to show how not to run. This starts in August 1996 and I had been running for about 3 months up to 5 miles max. I ran the half-marathon with 2 weeks notice having never running further than 10k before but had been planning to run the 10k race for several months. 

I can’t believe I started the month with 5 flat out 10k’s in 9 days!

1 Thursday Rest
2 Friday 10k time trial  00:41:16 3 Saturday Rest
4 Sunday Rest
5 Monday 10k time trial  00:40:40 6 Tuesday 10k time trial  00:40:16 7 Wednesday Rest
8 Thursday 10k time trial  00:41:10 9 Friday Rest
10 Saturday 10k time trial  00:40:07 11 Sunday 1 hour easy
12 Monday 47 minutes steady
13 Tuesday 45 minutes hilly
14 Wednesday Rest
15 Thursday 1 hour 10 minute run
16 Friday 10k time trial  00:39:45 17 Saturday 1 hour 24 minutes run
18 Sunday 1 hour 14 minutes run
19 Monday 7 miles steady
20 Tuesday Rest
21 Wednesday 6 miles with 1 fast
22 Thursday Rest
23 Friday Rest
24 Saturday Causeway Coast Half Marathon 01:30:14 25 Sunday Rest
26 Monday Rest
27 Tuesday 30mins felt weak
28 Wednesday 40mins hilly
29 Thursday 40mins hilly
30 Friday Rest
31 Saturday 6 miles steady
1 Sunday 8 miles steady
2 Monday 10k time trial  00:39:07 3 Tuesday 6 miles steady
4 Wednesday 6 miles farlek
5 Thursday 6 miles steady
6 Friday Rest
7 Saturday 10k time trial  00:39:13 8 Sunday 8 miles steady in new shoes
9 Monday 4 miles - blister problems
10 Tuesday 10k time trial  00:40:20 11 Wednesday 30mins fast-slow run
12 Thursday 6.5 miles steady
13 Friday Rest
14 Saturday 10k time trial  00:39:13 15 Sunday 6 miles steady
16 Monday 20 minutes Brisk
17 Tuesday Rest
18 Wednesday 3 miles steady
19 Thursday 2 miles steady
20 Friday Rest
21 Saturday Bangor Classic 10k 0:37:40