Brian asked me to help him measure out some distances over 100 and 200 m along the old coast rd.
After I asked him to pace me on his bike round the first half of the Southport Seaside 10K course. I asked Brian to ride at 5.45 pace and I would try and hang on. It helps alot to have someone to follow and the first mile seemed easy in 5.45,
I was feeling quite strong and smooth, working at driving my knees forward as quickly as possible, 3 k went by in 10.46 without a problem but at 4 k you have to run across a small section of grass field which was sodden by yesterdays very heavy rain, this dropped my speed down under 10 mph, I picked up a big stone from the gravel path in my shoes tread and as I got back on the old coast road the shoe made a loud tapping sound, dam! Concentrate-concentrate, I was picking up speed again and I hammered the long finishing straight along rotten row, finishing with a 12.8 mph sprint finish with 17.58 on the Garmin for 3.13 miles [5.44 pace]. Maybe if this had been a race I might have managed around 17.30, but anyway it was a good warm up for next weeks 10k race. CLICK ON MAP TO ENLARGE
ON SUNDAY MY BROTHER ANDY RAN THE LOCH NESS MARATHON
Read Margot's report HERE
Here I am running in the pouring rain, splashing through inch deep puddles and fighting a nagging wind that breaks my rhythm and soul, I go through the 1/4 in 79 secs, but now I'm into the head wind , trying to stay relaxed and at the same time push close to my limits. the 1/2 mile comes in 2.42, round the corner and I have the wind on my back, accelerating hard out the bend i desperately try to increase my pace up to 12 mph, I glance at the Garmin at 3/4 distance [ 4.07]. I gather myself for the final assault, squeezing every last bit of energy out of my legs, sprinting into the wind all the way to the finish line, 5.29 ! Oh well, not exactly the confidence booster I was looking for, but under the conditions am not sure if it was good or bad!This time last year I was 6 weeks into my ARTHUR LYDIARD base training and feeling really strong, this year I've run two marathons and run a hard summers race campaign which left me tired and burned out, I would dearly love to race well on Sunday in the local 10k, but i think am much in need of rebuilding my base, before I can ever think of running to a good level again!3 x 1 mile, 1st mile steady 6.01, 2nd mile hard 5.29, 3rd mile fast relaxed 5.52 = 45 mins
Evening
I went to the gym with Niz and after going round all the weight machines i ended up on the treadmill! with the grade set to 2% I got up to an impressive 11 mph, I was thinking this felt remarkably easy when i realized it was in fact set for kph, oops!!
FINAL WEEK COUNTDOWN
Today I ran down to Victoria park and completed a mile of sprints, sprinting each straight then jogging easy for 30 seconds before charging into the next straight.
13 sprints in a mile,
average pace 4.54 ,
the strong winds meant that my target of sub 5 min pace proved harder than anticipated.
total running time = 40mins
After starting training as a gym instructor i was advised to join a gym to get experience of using all the weight training equipment etc, so I did my first session last night. Today i found my legs felt pretty sore after using the leg press machine . Arthur Lydiard's programme called for a 2k and 3 k tempo effort, but seeing that I've still not gone metric yet I changed this to a mile and 2 miles. The first mile [ 5.41] felt like a real effort , I ran the second effort inside the Kings gardens, [the scene of many a short distance club race in the past] maybe the thought of my 3 club victories in the 3k inspired me as I felt much better and in control during the 2 mile interval and cruised round at 5.49 pace . 1 mile 5.41, 2 miles 11.40
I guess the important thing is I ran the 2 mile effort over 30 secs faster than last week, even if i feel i should be capable of 5.30 pace!
= 1hour 14 mins
put in a gentle run,over the sand dunes.needed to relax after a hard days night [ sounds like a beatles song] working my socks off!
thoughts of sundays seaside 10k kept coming into my mind.
= 1.13
