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Just spin today. Will start increasing the running over course of this week as feeling quite good now.
First run since London today. Delayed any running due to the man-flu. Just over 6 miles on the trails to get back into it, break in the new trail shoes, and clear the rubbish off my chest. Nice!
Legs were in a mess at the start and are still not great. It takes me a while to get over a race, I have no idea how you guys perform so well so soon after a big event. Very impressive.
Yes g dawg, im always amazed by how people can perform after a mara. I have a very hilly 10k next sunday but font expect to perform well.
DT - who are your local team just promoted to the Southern Premier? I don't think I'd heard of Alvechurch until they played King's Lynn, so they've done amazingly well for a small outfit. The Linnets still need one more to gain promotion.
GD - great comeback. Was that Welling?
After high winds and a hailstorm on Saturday, the weather had fortunately calmed down on Sunday and was pretty much ideal. I was still feeling okay too, so was definitely going to give it 100% and just see how it went. I live almost exactly 1 mile from the start, so did 1 easy mile there and then a few strides up and down the high street. Lining up at the start I saw an ex-colleague who does parkrun and asked him how he was doing. Not bad, he said, but the doc told me I shouldn't run today following an operation on my head 2-3 days ago!
I had decided to leave auto-lap on and just glance at my watch at the kilometre markers on the course. My plan was to aim for somewhere around 39 mins dead, so 3:54 per km. We started a couple of minutes late, and headed off down to the river and along the quay, by which time I had tucked in behind my friend, who I've never beaten in a 10k, but have just started to get the measure of him at parkrun in the last year or so. No sign of blood on this head, which is a relief! We then turn and head back up to the High Street and although I couldn't see a marker, I was sure it was about 1km, and my watch said somewhere around 3:40, so a tad quick!
The course weaves it way back out of the town centre but instead of heading back to the river as it used to, we take the main road and do a quick 180 degree turn before heading into the park. I finally spot a km marker (3) and from what I remember, it was around 11 mins, so I'm still going a bit faster than planned (about 40-45 seconds in hand now). A lap of the park, notching up 4kms, and then we head out onto the main road again towards the old town gates. There's a time display on top of a car and I think it said 19:2x, so I've slowed down a bit, which is probably as well as long as I can now maintain pace. At this point I'm overtaken by 3 runners. 1 local guy I recognise, a lady who is apparently leading the women's race going by the crowd, and another bloke. They also overtake my friend. We're heading out of town towards the river again and then turn along the bank. This is the only point in the race where I noticed the wind, so can't complain. We've passed 6kms and I then notice that the gap between me and my friend is narrowing, so I press on and pass him at 7km. He encourages me on, saying the worst part is over, and I take another glance at my watch to see I'm still on course for around 39 mins. We now head back through the town and do the first 2.5km in reverse. I'm still feeling good and confident enough to press on now, holding onto the pack of 3 ahead of me as we head up the quayside again. Time to see if I have anything left and ease past all 3 of them as we head onto the last straight about 500m to go. Then I sense someone on my shoulder and both guys are now sprinting past me. I kick again and find a bit extra, but not enough to hold them off and they pass me 10-20 metres before the line!
My watch said 38:42 so I am feeling ecstatic to bag another PB and break 39 mins for the first time. I quickly congratulate the guys who sprinted past me and the winner of the ladies before grabbing my goody bag and heading off across the market place and an easy mile brings me back to Church just in time for the last hymn - nice timing!
I knew my watch time would be roughly equal to gun rather than chip time as I pressed start on hearing the gun and was really pleased to get an extra 3 seconds with 38:39 as my official time. I finished 39th overall, easily my best for this race, and 3rd MV50-54. The guy who I recognised turned out to have just had his 50th birthday (last week he was MV45-49 at parkrun!) so he sneaked 2nd place, but deservedly so. As I mentioned the other day, I felt really drained that afternoon, so amazed I didn't appear to be affected while running. Still feeling rather chuffed and now have a clean sweep of PBs in the last 7 months
GD - come on you Cards !!
Gul, nice work and report. My local 10k sunday which starts 1 mile from my house which is quite handy. My course pb is 39.46 from last year (it has nearly 400ft of elevation gain) so simply aiming to beat that. What other pbs have you set so far (obviously I can recall the marathon pb)? I have my eye on a clean sweep of 7 distance pbs this year having bagged marathon and 20m (though I didn't really race that).
Our club are Bromsgrove Sporting. This is our 3rd successive promotion. We had just under 3000 there yesterday and our average home crowd is about 1000. Alvechurch punches well above it's weight, it's basically a big village between Bromsgrove and Redditch, and usually attracts between 100-200 supporters. Next season we will have Bromsgrove, Redditch, Alvechurch and Stourbridge all within 5-10m of each other and also Stratford just a little bit further out.
I am keen to press on a bit now but schedule is still very light this week, probably to factor in sunday's race. 5 miles over lunch today planned.
OO - no prize, I'm afraid. I have a feeling there are no prizes at all now it is run by Jane Tomlinson's Run For All - except for the kudos, of course
Gul - Cracking report and seemed a well judged race. I've only raced 4 distances as well (although never a 5k outside of parkrun) and have PB'd in all over the last year. The marathon twice!
5 last night which felt a lot harder then it should have done. I think it was just tired though as after Sundays 12m I immediately spent 2 and a half hours cutting hedges! Hopefully feel a bit fresher for tonights 16x400 track session
My clean sweep is 5k (parkrun), 5 mile, 10k, 10 mile, half, 20m and mara. I managed all 7 in 2016 and 6 in 2017. Last year I only managed 3 of 6 distances, though the cumulative total of my misses in 5m, 10m and 10k was 24 seconds so it wasn't as bad as the headline digit suggests.
5 over lunch. Felt a bit of a trudge. I hate this stage post mara. Find it very difficult to get any momentum.
Swim for me today and club sesh this evening.
Im off to Jersey tomorrow for a short break. Will be meeting up with Gerard for a run and doing at parkrun with him next weekend.
DT liking that clean sweep. Marathoners are more versatile than they think. In my best year (2012) I PB'd at everything from 5k to 100 miles. Seems a long time ago now.
Maybe if I could grow luxuriant hair like "The Sheffield Samson" (a.k.a. Birch) I would be fast again one day.
Phys today - she even showed me a new technique for getting up and down stairs (it's a very tall thin house). That's not a good thing.
Badbark - definitely take the advice to rest; you may love your running to an insane degree but is it worth your overall health? Take the time off they say to, then take some more; and come back stronger than ever.
Jools - that's a solid time at Ashton Court; such a hard one to pace correctly. Will be seeing you at Sutton Coldfield in a couple of weeks.
Just back from a week in Crete straight from the beers in Chandos. Such a beautiful place and a great time with friends for a holiday and wedding. Rather broken now due to excessive amounts of excess but managed a couple of runs in the sun; nothing too strenuous though. Hoping to get back into it fully now and hit some targets on the short stuff.