running them hills

tough run off road round parbold and harrock hill.lots of mud.pushed up to tempo pace on the hills.
one hell of a mud splattering,lung burning,leg jellyfying session =1.51








the photo is of the quarry rd leading up 2 the top of hunters hill, the bottom of this hill is the start of the harrock hill race series each sommer and the parbold hill race hits this climb after about 1/2 mile into the race.

thur 10th jan
leg speed 10x 150m max 14mph = 1.10

running with the mad dog

after yesterdays very hard run it was time for a nice gentle run over the sand dunes with mad dog tess.back to mild conditions once more [ no gloves required ].
its pretty cool havin a dog to train with,she is aways ready to go out what ever the time,day or night,sunshine or rain.
tess is a border collie, as working dogs they will run all day long up and down the hills.
when i trained for my last marathon tess ran up to 30 miles off road with me.
it always brings a smile to my face when i see her splashing through a big muddle or bounding up a sandhill with a big grin on her face.
= 1.14

marathon training; running against the wind

i could hear the wind battering against the window,so i knew it was going to be a demanding run.
i set out at about my marathon pace to meet up with the club for the monday speed session.i added in a extra loop to give me 5 miles before the start of the club session.there was a good turn out tonight,i guess every one is keen and exited by the thought of a new year of racing.
we did 8 efforts ranging from about 400m up to 800m, i was running at around 5 min mile pace on most of these efforts.
after the session i headed home the long way trying to lift my pace back up to marathon speed.
i started to run on empty the last couple of miles and finished feeling a bit dizzy as my blood sugar dropped. hard day at the office !=1.54.49

southport waterloo ac new years day run 16.79 miles

new years day must have been one of the warmest on record.after the start at hall road we were soon stripping off clothing as we over heated.
about 24 of us set out on the 19th edition of the clubs new years day run.a fast section soon formed at the front and i found my self hanging on to the front group.this felt more like a race than a social run !
we regrouped at lifeboat road car park at 7 mile and took in refreshments.after about 10 mins we took off again over the big sand dunes.at this point we took a wrong turn and ended up taking a short cut,it was decided to add in an extra loop of the pinewoods to increase the distance.
it was sad to see so many trees being cut down,are we going to lose this beautiful area for good and what the hell are english nature up to !
ask your M P before its to late.
i was asked to take the lead after coming out of the woods which was a relief to me as i could control the pace abit !
i led the guy's back over the final sand dunes following the white posts back to birkdale.we hit the firm tarmac of the cycle track with just 1/2 mile to go.the pace picked up to a steady 10 mph and i was once again hanging to to the back of darrel steve and rob. we ended up with almost 17 miles run at 7.5 mph average speed which is pretty fast going taking into account all the sandhills and soft sand. it was a very good start to our marathon training,as this year we have good teams going to blackpool and london both in april.
after we spent the afternoon drinking pints and playing pool,what a fantastic way to start the new year !