Wednesday 1 April 2009

THE IMPOSSIBLE IS POSSIBLE, IF YOU BELIEVE!


'BACK FROM THE DEAD'
ON THE SANDHILL'KILLER' 6
Runners World recommended a 5 mile tempo run today.
Back in 2005 I used the sandhill 6 loop as a regular tempo run, getting down to a course record of 33.56, since then I have never got close to that time [36.32 last year] after hearing that Jon had smashed his year best time yet again on the sandhill 6 [49.30, 10 minutes improvement so far this year!] I decided to attack my own p.b. despite tired legs I got down to business and quickly got into a good rhythm, hitting the hillside direction post after 12 mins, the big sand dunes come in the second half, little dipper and then the notorious 'BIG DIPPER' guaranteed to turn your legs to jelly, I ran the first section quite strongly but I was suffering on the big dunes, next was the crocodiles back, the last of the hills, now I could pick up speed, concentrating on redlining, giving it every last bit of energy, past THE ROYAL BIRKDALE CLUB HOUSE, and now the final section across a field back to the start.
I stop my Garmin and look down in disbelief , Wow 34.31! my fastest time in 4 years!!!

I head for home, the quads have blown again! so its a slow painful jog , maybe on fresh legs A new record might be on, kind of amazing seeing that I'm now 48 years old.

'THE IMPOSSIBLE, IS POSSIBLE, IF YOU BELIEVE'!
Sandhill 'Killer 6 Loop, The Route CLICK HERE

Evening
Ran down with Tess to meet club for a enjoyable run, Tess had a big smile on her face as she bounded along with the group! = 40 mins
Thur 2nd
Beautiful day to be out running, Tess and me ran the sandhill 6 in reverse, strange how running a route in the opposite direction opens up a whole new world!
Great to be outside in the sun and fresh air, my mind and soul are refreshed. = 1.15
Fri 3rd
Easy run with Jon on the sandhill 6, finished with 3 downhill sprints. = 56 mins

3 comments:

jingo said...

I am sure you will pb the Sandhills 6 this year as you are so close to it. I am still 7 mins off my best of 42m 29s set back in 1997, but of course I need to start racing first and get back to the race times I was doing. This may take a while as I've only lost 25% of total weight required to get back to a reasonable racing weight. One pound lost = 11 seconds on the Sandhills 6 (or road 10k). 40 pounds = 440 seconds = 7m 20s = 42m 09s = pb! In other words, if I was 11 stone 2 pounds I could run a pb for the same fitness level that I have now! Jon

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Jon, your doing really well this year, a 10 min improvement on the sandhill 6 is impressive, who knows what you can achieve once you are back to a fighting weight!
If you want it you can do it!

Ewen said...

How can you not have a great London?!

I like the cover of that book - with Percy showing Herb how it's done on the sandhills!