Finally starting to catch up with the blog! Miss off a week to help ... nothing eventful happened, other than me being lazy. I was hoping to have a easier week this week also in preparation for the half mar. on Sunday.
Mon, Oct 8, 2012 6:23 PM
9.29 mi, 1:19:19 (8:33/mi) - Nice steady recovery run after the race yesterday. Calves were a bit tight so stopped off at Orton Mere for a good stretch. Tried to stay on the grass as much as we could tonight, and got Tom out for one of his longest run! Ended up being a slow run overall but I wasn't really bothered to be honest, just wanted to get the crap out of my legs from the race yesterday.
It's definitely getting too dark to keep going down by Orton Mere, will need to try and stay on the roads now until the Spring.
Tue, Oct 9, 2012 6:31 PM
7.00 mi, 55:00 (7:54/mi) - Rookie error today .. I literally got to the end of the street and my watch ran out of battery. So times/distance are a rough guess. From to the track and then went out on the Winter route towards Sainsbury's, felt alright, recovered nicely from Sunday and now looking forward to the half on this Sunday.
Wed, 10 Oct 2012 10:30
7:00 mi, 52:00 (7:24/mi) - Watch was dead again today, so rough figures again. Felt good, stretched well. Was good to get a group of 6 of us out on a Wednesday night, especially Dicko!!
Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:34
6.47 mi, 47:29 (7:20/mi) - Pretty much the same as Tuesday tonight, ran down to the track and then went out on the Winter route again. Ended up running to Greyfriars and not home hence the distance difference. Felt quite fast tonight, but I guess that's just from the pace I had been running the rest of the week at. Edgars and Tom were doing efforts so I just ended up running the same pace with Sean all the way round. Ended up getting absolutely soaked near the end of this! Was awful.
From this I went and had a easy massage, no pains or aches legs felt great.
Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:06
5.14 mi, 40:15 (7:50/mi) - Took a different route today, went off towards Stanground and back around the track. Standard run, not much to say about it really, just trying to get some easy miles in before Sunday. Got some good stretching in afterwards and did some work on the roller as well.
Sat, 13 Oct 2012 17:35
3.56 mi, 27:26 (7:42/mi) - Nice and steady run with Edgars ready for tomorrow, finished off with some strides. Focussed on my form and tried to keep the pace not too slow. Strides felt good, no niggles in my knee which was promising, really confident for tomorrow - hoping to smash my pb, getting 73ish.
Sun, 14 Oct 2012 9:45
2.00 mi, 15:00 (7:30/mi) - Nice steady warm up, went off on my own in the end after pissing about with all the baggage area. In the end I just started running down some of the course, I went for my warm up a bit late due to the crowd and baggage situation which left me a bit short of time for drills/stretching.
Sun, 14 Oct 2012 10:30
13.24 mi, 1:14:48 (5:40/mi) - Got off to a good start, I don't think that the lack of warm-up really affected me. 5:21 first mile sitting in a nice little group with the lead women just off the back of the main leaders, first mile was just to get out of the crowd and settle down into a nice rhythm. Ended up running with Kye from C&C and Tamirat from Belgrave .. yes a women. Second mile was 5:35, let the first 3 women push ahead and ended up with the 3 of us working well together. Third mile, 5:30, back onto the pace I wanted to try and keep to get sub 73, still feeling reasonably comfortable at this point, just munching the miles through - still in a group of 3. Fourth mile, 5:32, same again, still hitting a good pace missed the first drinks station as I didn't did it.Fifth mile, 5:34, just another mile munched away, still at this point feeling okay. Sixth mile, 5:47, this was doing up Amberly Slope so was expecting this mile to be slower. A few guys had caught us up and 2/3 went past, just let them go as I was comfortable in the pace I was running. Seventh mile, 5:39, slightly uphill still going down Church Street towards the 2nd drinks station where I did take on some water along with a gel (having looked at the map before the race I thought this was the best station to take on the gel as the next station wasn't until mile 9). I think at this point I took a bit too much water on as I felt it in my stomach. At this point another few people pasted us, and at this point Kye managed to push on and go with that which showed to be a great move on his behalf! I went through half-way in about 37:05 which I knew was going to leave me slower than what I wanted to achieve. From this point I was still running with Tamirat, and a lad from Serpentine until 7 miles when I managed to push on. Eighth mile, 5:35, actually feeling good at this point, running on my own as I had pulled away from the two I was running with, but a fair way behind the group in front, at the end of the bus route I heard people starting to cheer on Halford which was the worst thing I could have heard at this point... Heading down Fulbridge road now and I had a little look over to see where Paul was as I knew it wouldn't take him long to catch me up and no doubt go past me. Mile 9, 5:38, this was the last mile before I really started to struggle in the race. We turned left onto Gunthorpe road and this was slightly downhill, hence the pace not dropping off to much. At this point I could still feel the water from the drinks station in my stomach - I did think this would develop into something worse than it actually ended up being, so I was quite lucky. Through the next drinks station the inevitable happened and Paul passed me. Trying to urge me to go with him, but my legs just couldn't push on at all and I had started to really lose the pace here. The shitty road surface on this section didn't help so I just ran on the path!
Mile 10, 5:44, this was the point when my legs had pretty much turned off, I went through 10 miles in 56:50 which in it's self is a pb for 10 miles for me. After Paul had passed me there wasn't really anyone else around me until a bit later in the race. 11 miles, 5:56, slowest mile of the race, legs really suffering at this point. Past the last drinks station here as well but as I had already taken too much fluid on I didn't take anything on here. The new route made the last section come up a lot faster, although people were starting to catch me up quite rapidly now. Mile 12, 5:52, a group of a few local guys caught me just before the 12th mile marker which was really disappointed, especially as I couldn't pick the pace up and go with them. From this point I really did just want to finish the race, and to be honest in the last mile the pace I was going it did enter my mind of pulling out - I knew I just needed to get home as fast as I could. Mile 13, 5:47 nobody else passed me from this point, I couldn't really close the gap on the guys in front it was just about getting to the line losing as little time as possible. I knew I wouldn't be under 74 minutes anymore either which was massively disappointing. Last little drag over the line and I managed to sprint through in, on the grass and finished with a chip time of 1:14:49 and a gun time of 1:14:48. Yes, that does mean that I false started!
Sun, 14 Oct 2012 12:30
1.50 mi, 15:00 (10:00/mi) - Pain in my knee which was quite bad that's why the pace was so slow, just wanted to make sure that I had got some running in after the race. I didn't feel very well, but I wasn't as ill as I was after Grunty which was good I guess.
Total Weekly Mileage - 55.20 Miles
Overall I was slightly disappointed in the race, but at the end of the day I just still ran a PB. After looking back on my recent training I think that I struggled after 9 miles was because I haven't been doing the long miles for long enough. Weekly miles were good, wanted to taper down for GER. In the next few weeks I'll be looking at races I can enter and try and focus on having a really good training week (10 days) in Portugal in November. I'm looking at entering the Fenland 10 miles to get a good run in before I go away, then the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k/Liverpool Cross but I'll make that decision in the next few days.
Thanks for reading this week again guys!
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