Sunday 15 March 2015

Weetabix Breakfast and gone off gels.....

are the key to any good PB!

A very pleasing run at the Essex 20 today. Nearly 12 minutes quicker than my previous go over the course, and faster than my 2:40-2:45 pre race target. Was in the car mulling over mile or km splits whilst my wife wittered on about cuticle oil. We like different things :-) I opted for mile splits in the end.

Tried to rein myself in early on as instructed by Luke and Pete. Did pretty well at that for the first 2 miles and then the big hill in mile 3 definitely kept me in check. The average pace for those first 3 miles was 8 min mile so 2:40 and as a general guide that was going to be my target. I wasn't too particular though as I knew the undulations would make knocking out bang on splits impossible.

I was feeling strong through the first lap, a few people around me all gassing away. A little too much chitter chatter and not enough pitter patter of feet for my tastes. But as the miles piled on people drifted away and it was quite a lonely race but I enjoyed the peace and quiet and lack of pressure.
I saw Lauren at the end of lap one and she got a prime spot for some photo snapping. Am yet to see the results, I might add them to this blog if they cut the mustard.

The second lap was the toughest mentally not the first lap excitement or the finish line feeling of the last lap. I was pretty upbeat for pretty much the entire race though. I had a couple of Bishop Stortford guys near me as well as a couple of Great Bentley runners and we all ran pretty even paced races, although we weren't running shoulder to shoulder it was nice to have some familiar faces/backs as the race wore on.

I did get lapped by the race leader just after he passed the 19 mile marker. Going like a train! Finished in under 1:46 and with an 8 minute winning margin! Thankfully nobody else lapped me before I made it onto the 3rd lap.

Now I was ready to put the foot down a little more and it was nice going past landmarks knowing that was the last time you were going to see them. I worked through the first 3 miles of the lap passed the Water plant with the "Oxygen Delivery Entrance" could have done with some of that! Then left up the significant hill, have just checked on Strava and went up this fastest on my final lap. Got my breath back at the top and began to lap the occasional runner as well as picking off the odd runner on my lap. From 18 miles I think the wind was helpful and it might be a touch down hill and I wanted to finish strong. My form started to falter a little here but the pace was good.

Left turn at the finish and onto the field, power through the line and stopped my watch inside 2:39 exhausted! Saw Lauren and got to the car a few metres away, elated at my efforts. Right up there with the BUPA Great North Run in terms of performance. I have now spent the afternoon either in the bath or eating my way through the cupboards. Will sleep peacefully tonight.

So there we have it, my first genuine PB in years and a well paced race with me finishing strong. Sets me up for a small Marathon PB at Stratford at the end of April. Buzzing!

Finished 153rd out of 423.

Split Summary===
1) 1m - 7:52(7:52/m) 153/181bpm 91cal (includes 1st hill)
2) 1m - 7:53(7:53/m) 165/187bpm 117cal
3) 1m - 8:21(8:21/m) 178/190bpm 109cal (2nd bigger hill)
4) 1m - 8:04(8:05/m) 178/186bpm 122cal
5) 1m - 7:57(7:57/m) 180/189bpm 118cal
6) 1m - 7:53(7:53/m) 179/188bpm 71cal
7) 1m - 7:54(7:54/m) 175/183bpm 112cal
8) 1m - 8:04(8:04/m) 180/189bpm 81cal (1st hill repeated)
9) 1m - 7:53(7:53/m) 181/187bpm 90cal
10) 1m - 8:26(8:26/m) 182/189bpm 91cal (bigger hill again)
11) 1m - 8:01(8:01/m) 181/189bpm 116cal
12) 1m - 7:52(7:52/m) 171/190bpm 22cal
13) 1m - 7:55(7:55/m) 153/170bpm 64cal
14) 1m - 7:45(7:45/m) 151/169bpm 98cal (1st hill final time)
15) 1m - 7:45(7:45/m) 163/184bpm 126cal
16) 1m - 8:00(8:00/m) 184/191bpm 114cal (bigger hill final time)
17) 1m - 7:53(7:53/m) 183/187bpm 85cal
18) 1m - 8:01(8:01/m) 182/191bpm 135cal
19) 1m - 7:59(7:59/m) 185/191bpm 92cal
20) 0.98m - 7:25(7:34/m) 184/192bpm 117cal

Sunday 1 March 2015

February Month 4 - Motivation Waning

Something was missing in February, just couldn't get myself up for some runs, particularly anything over 10 miles. There is some lingering illness in the background which might it explain it, but I'm not totally convinced. Had a really good start to the month with a 1:35 at Great Bentley Half Marathon but didn't really kick on after that. I did manage to run on 16 of the 28 days so meeting my 4 a week minimum run target.

Managed to achieve:
1 x Hill Session
2 x Intervals both 10 x 400m
1 x 5K parkrun
1 x Half Marathon
4 x Commutes home at 7.5 miles a time
5 x General / Steady/ Easy runs (5-9 miles)
1 x 10 Mile
1 x Half Marathon distance training run

Total of 118 miles so my highest mileage for the month of February ever, and my 5th highest mileage month in the 70 I've been doing this game. So not all bad. I now have 8 weeks until Stratford Marathon and when my racing really starts to ramp up. Hoping the mojo is returned to full force in March putting me in good shape to crush my existing PB's into the ground.