Skip to main content

The Return of the Friday Five

It might sound like a reference to a children's book by Enid Blyton but....

About three years ago, when our work and other commitments would permit, my running buddy Liz and I would meet up on a Friday during the day and go for a run.... we usually ran about five miles and so it became known as the Friday Five.



There wasn't anything particularly special about these five miles from a training sense; we weren't doing speed work or setting ourselves a particular running goal. We had a couple of regular routes - along the canal to Birches Head, or along the canal towards Trentham. Sometimes we would throw in a bit of variety and the occasional hill. In winter, we stuck to main roads and tried to avoided ice. A couple of times we went a bit further afield or ran a bit further.


Friday Five on Tour... Getting lost in Hope

But it was never really about the run or the route... the Friday Five was an opportunity to meet, chat, catch-up on our weeks and the five mile run would just be a happy by-product. It would take us somewhere between 50 and 60 minutes but we rarely looked at our watches. If injury or illness struck, the Friday Five would sometimes be a walk or just a coffee or lunch instead. If we were training for something or feeling strong, we might aim for a bit of a quicker time or at least finish with a faster mile.

Over the last few months, the Friday Five has been a much more irregular occurrence. Work and life have been getting in the way. Since the start of 2019, we've tried to meet a couple of times but it's not quite worked out. It's been tricky of late to get everything lined up to make it happen; leaving work as planned, remembering my kit and where we are meeting, being fit and healthy and ready to run...

But this week, everything worked out, the Friday Five was back and we really enjoyed it. We got to run in daylight for the first time in months, we caught up on a busy few weeks for both of us and it was fun.

Hoepfully it won't be too long before the next time... I've missed my Friday Five.







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Run

This latest blogpost is all about parkrun , which is an organisation which arranges free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world. They have been taking place around the UK for several years and in Stoke-on-Trent since September 2011, when Hanley parkrun was held for the first time. Every Saturday morning, between 30 and 50 runners, plus volunteers and supporters gather in Hanley Park by the lake. When the fountains are turned on at 9am, the countdown to the start begins. The course takes us from the bottom of the park to the top and back (twice) and finishes by the bandstand just above the canal - it parkrun terminology, its a net uphill course. I love parkrun. I love the challenge of trying to improve my own time each week. So far this year, I've knocked about 2 minutes off my personal best and I'm really pleased about that. Each week, I feel like I can control my pace a lot better and the hills are not too big an obstacle to climb. The speedwork and hill trainin...
1 comment
Read more

Pollyanna

During the first half of 2013, I've really enjoyed taking part in races as part of the annual competition by the  North Staffs Road Runners Association . There was the first race of the season in Alsager where I learnt about the importance of spotting the other "Ws", two hilly 10k races in Newcastle and Clayton , my accidental half marathon in Uttoxeter . Even the tough races at Westbridge and the Potters 'Arf  had moments of enjoyment, where I felt like I was accomplishing something as a runner. And my first season in NSRRA Group W has gone better than I could have hoped - six races, six wins. Last weekend, it was time for my seventh race - the Stone St Michaels 10k.  I didn't wake up on Sunday morning feeling enthusiastic about running - the weather was not inspiring and if I hadn't pre-entered and arranged a lift, I might have been tempted to give it a miss and have an extra couple of hours of sleep. But I did run - two laps ro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunburn

The London Marathon... An iconic sporting event broadcast all over the world. Something I've watched but now would take part in for the first time, my second marathon. My first one in Manchester couldn't have gone much better... perfect conditions, a negative split, amazing support. That's a lot to live up to. Setting out for the start... thanks to Potters Trotters Liz for my send off If this were any other race, I would probably write about my disappointing result, my goal of 4 hours disintegrating in a few moments just after half way, the first race where I've had to walk for long periods because I just couldn't run anymore. I might write about what went wrong in great detail - probably a combination of the sunburn, heat, residual tiredness and problems with hydration and refuelling - and ponder on why running 9 minute miles felt so tough almost from mile 1. I could show you graphs of my km split times getting slower and slower. But this wasn't any...
Post a Comment
Read more