A teensy bit of running

So it was that I found myself once again at the track. This week the marvel that is Marc Bonaldi was back from holiday so I had a jolly time warming up with him as he regaled me with tales from his travels. We then had to survive Robin’s hardcore warm up regime that involves too much sprinting, bending down and springing back up for my liking. Finally it was time for the session proper. This week’s track session was a slight permutation on last week. This time it was 600m with 30s rest then 800m at the same speed as the 600 but with a fast 200 tacked on the end. As always Rick took on the pacing duties. Once again he was excellent and consistently brought us home in 2.30 for the 600s and 3.15 for the 800s. I didn’t do as well as last week but did manage to stay vaguely in touch throughout so a good session over all.

I then rested for 4 days due to a combination of work getting in the way and the development of a cold that made me feel too feeble to get out for a run.

On Saturday I wanted to get a good confidence building parkrun under my belt to set me up for Sunday but unfortunately this did not happen at all. I was testing out some new socks which fell down as soon as I started my warm up jog. This was most annoying. However this turned out to be the least of my worries as when I began to run properly I developed a massive stitch which scuppered any hopes I had of a good time or good run of any sort. After the world’s greatest positive split I practically walked home in 22.35. One to forget.

The one up side to the parkrun stitch failure was that I had expended no energy so arrived at the Brighton 10k on Sunday well rested after many days off in the week. I had developed a rather sore throat/sinuses and drippy nose but I felt it was more an annoyance than something that would slow me down. I had absolutely no plan and hadn’t even thought about the race other than a vague sense that if I did under 43 minutes I would be pleased. My watch was set simply to give me my k splits with the front screen showing my average pace. As this race is always very crowded it took 35 seconds to cross the start line. This time I remembered to start my watch as I crossed the start line not on Go or at a random point in between. The start was slow as always but this time I tried to keep sensible and not waste energy or become enraged with trying to weave. After the turn at 1.5k ish I started to push on a bit when space allowed. The weather was perfect for running and I was actually running rather well (not so much in speed but in calmness and brain-cooperation). Time was passing reasonably well and soon I was on the way back to the finish line.

Looking like an actual runner. Thanks Sam for taking a usable photo! 

Excellent consistency (for me) and sub 7s all the way!

Having remembered to check how long it had taken to cross the start line (around 35 seconds) I had forgotten by the time I reached the finish so thought I had done worse than I really had. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see 42.05 residing there. I crossed my fingers for 41.59 as the official chip time.

Success!

On the way home I bumped into Daz who was running the Brighton marathon route as he wasn’t able to run it at the time due to injury. It was good for him to run on the closed off 10k route as it made it seem more like the real thing. He had gathered Andy W (who had just finished the 10k) and Stephen Whitehurst to run with him. I cycled along with them for a bit until they turned up Grand Avenue to follow the correct marathon route.

Andy and I giving Daz a bit of support on his marathon journey. Roads closed and cones out for the true marathon effect

Although I only managed a lowly 17 miles for the week it ended on a positive note. Onwards and upwards from here please.

Oh! I also went climbing this afternoon and finally cracked the upside down dog’s bum that had be thwarting me for weeks. Managed quite a few new greens too. Splendid.