I have been trying to run a sub 20 minute parkrun for years. That is ever since I started doing parkruns about 12 years ago. I ran a few sub 20 minutes, 5 kilometre races when I was young on a proper running track, but that was I was involved with a running club, a long time ago.
I was getting close a few years ago, doing a 20 minute 39 second parkrun on a fast and flat, out and back parkrun course under near perfect conditions. I am starting to worry I am getting a bit old for this sort of a challenge but I have seen a lot of people my age doing it regularly with what looks like ease.
Respect, focus and a bit of a plan on paper is what I need. Not just thinking it will happen because I like run regularly and I have done it before. I need to run my harder workouts faster but then do my other running easier in-between. I don't think just pushing every workout hard, like I used to do when I was young will work like it used to for me. As I get older I really need to make sure I give my body enough time to recover. When I end up running in a group on my easy days I seem to get sucked into running too fast at the other people pace. My ego seems to stop me getting too far behind.
Eating clean and getting plenty of sleep will help too but I think my biggest barrier is me just doing too much tooo soon.
