Just give me some tarmac!

When I planned my autumn, the schedule was flexible to allow for London Marathon 2014 training. Being a ballot loser means I can stick to my current 10k, speed focus for the season. The Saffron Walden 10k was one of the events I'd selected to compete in. It ticked all the boxes; local (ten minute drive), right distance, cheap, run bling included (tech t-shirt). The only concern was the promise - 90% off road.
What did this mean? Farm lanes, bridleways, country lanes closed to traffic? In reality it was a course devoid of tarmac. 2km max on roads or country lanes, the last km on a lush but pot holed school field, the rest on tractor trails & narrow paths, except for a devilish hill on a farm concrete track.
After the Wimpole hill the day before what I needed was a nice, flat, bouncy, brand new tarmaced course. What I got was my idea of running hell: hills, headwinds & solid tractor runs baked by the sun. To add to my misery, no music on the grounds of elf safety!

The Run

I lined up on the start line without a plan, or a time to aim for. I'd seen a course profile & knew this wasn't a place to gun for a PB. Anything under 55:00 would be a decent mark. My last off road 10k was in Stansted last summer, a mud affected mid 56. The field was small, approximately 200 runners, no chips, just a megaphone & klaxon. This was very much a club race, lots of turn out from the clubs in the locality. I started reasonably well, making sure to pass the beginners that always seem to want to start at the front before the course narrowed. I was barely a kilometre in & still struggling for rhythm when we hit the double header of a hill & tractor path. By two km my Achilles was smarting, possibly due to the parkrun the day before combined with the underfoot conditions. I was considering adding another dnf to my collection.
The course continued to undulate and I found myself well above the 55:00 pace and rapidly losing interest. These are the moments that test you as a runner, when the challenge becomes mental rather than physical. I realised that the course was going to be horrific and to dig in. Once you chat with some fellow runners you recognise that everyone is facing the same conditions, even the leader didn't look like he was enjoying himself. Having a section that doubled back actually helped as I started to focus on running in a group around me, noticing I was in a good position.
My pace continued to be less than expected, but I started to find some drive after 5km, counting myself back to the finish line, 25 minutes left, 20, 15. The 7th km brought a 25m climb, not as severe as Wimpole the day previously, but a longer climb. I got 80% up & had to revert to walking alongside another runner. My glutes were killing me the moment I started running again!
By this stage I was back under the 55:00 pace and had time for a chat with a Clapham Chaser as the course found some tarmac again with 2km to go. We were coming back to the school where the finish was based, single file though as the course narrowed to a footpath. With 800m left we entered the school field, still running in a decent pack, all around what I thought would be a mid 54 time.
In between the rabbit holes & mole hills I tried to up my pace on the lush school field. 500m out and I was still at the rear of my pack when I managed to find some parkrun pace.
I crossed the line in 53:29, overhauling all but two that were ahead of me, even getting a head duck on the line in to grab a place. Maybe I'm overly competitive but having so many people to race at the end made me faster, almost made the hills and tractor trails worth it.

The Eat

The beauty of local runs is that they offer access to the eat straight away. The cake stand is a staple of small events. I scoffed on a 50p slice of carrot cake that was, for that moment in time the best slice of cake ever.
Homemade pizzas followed up in the evening as we're clearing out the fridge ahead of holiday.

The Conclusion

Having been so negative during the race, I'm happy with the time returned. My parkrun exploits the day before probably put a minute on my time, but I'm not sure I'd have made it up the hill fully even if I was fresh.
September has been a good month. Another 100 kilometre month, two sub 2:00:00 half marathons, with a PB thrown in for good measure.
The added highlight was getting so close to a 5k PB. I feel that my running is the best it has ever been & now the results are starting to prove this.
September might have been the month that I found out I wouldn't be running the London Marathon, but it was also the month I found form at every distance.

Pick a parkrun, any parkrun

Sometimes opportunities present themselves. When 50 shirt parkrunner Sean mentioned he was due in Cambridge on a Saturday morning, it presented a chance to travel north and take on a parkrun.
The original plan was Cambridge, an event I've not run in over 2 years. We'd also discussed Wimpole, me talking up the much fabled hill of doom. By Saturday morning Huntingdon was also an option, a new parkrun for us both. We decided on Cambridge and headed north on the m11. Traffic was good though and I felt we should take on doom hill, so I diverted us to Wimpole.

The Run

A glorious day presented itself, dry weather meant the Wimpole course would be at it's best. From past experience of the course I knew I'd be nowhere near a lifetime PB. I'd run a 28:50 back in February the week after the Barcelona half, at a time that my running form was at its worst. A course PB was a given today, I'd set a target in my mind of sub 26, feeling the course profile made it at least a minute and a half slower than most.
With that in mind my pacing was bizarre! I passed the 1 kilometre marker at 4:27/km, which I think is my fastest ever kilometre!! I continued to push as the course started to incline just before 2km. As soon as you hit 2k, Wimpole provided its highlight, the hill of doom. In my previous visit I managed to stay running the whole hill, a short but sharp at 30m climb. This time I got halfway and realised to conserve energy and walk up. Even at the peak of the hill it took time to recover, a 3rd km at 5:34 the proof! At this point I had adjusted my expectations to a low 26.
Soon the course provided some downhill, I was greeted with the best marshal advise ever "Mind the cow pat"! Cow crap avoided I started to recover my pace, although a return to uphill just before 4km was fun! Soon the grass was replaced by tarmac underfoot & I focused on the last km, back under the 26 mark. The last 250m was back on the grass and the timing lady was great in offering everyone encouragement to cross the line. I even tried to smile as Paula was on photo duty. To my surprise I finished in 25:16. This meant the last km was covered in 4:52. Overall splits of 4:27, 5:06, 5:34, 5:17, 4:52 and a course PB smashed by 3:34!!!!! This is more a mark of how bad I was earlier in the year. Given how tough the Wimpole course is, I think today's time is my best 5k since my PB. Even if it included a slight walk!!!

The Eat

On the recommendation of the Race Director we headed to the cafe and gorged on a selection of excellent cakes. With Wimpole the hill might take, but the cafe? gives back.

The Conclusion

Very happy with today's run. I'm no fan of off road running, yet there is something special about this parkrun. The hill is short, sharp & cruel, but if you can conquer it you'll be a better runner. Small matter of the Saffron Walden 10k in the morning, another off road race.....

A return to the tempo run

The work canter was cancelled yesterday. Admittedly that just means I lost the opportunity to roll out a lame excuse for not partaking. Work is hectic enough pre holiday without a sweaty slog around Westminster!
Back to the plan for this morning. Even shocked myself by being ready to run just 20 minutes after rolling out of bed. The training plan was simple; two ten minute tempo blocks, three five minute easy stints, in club sandwich formation (even the running part of the blog has some food references!!).
The Run
My first ten minute tempo averaged 5:22/km, the second around 5:31/km. Not quite the ideal pace, but lots of little abrupt hills & several smaller inclines that don't even appear to be hills until you analyse the route post run. Overall it's better than a straight easy run, much more gained from the short sharp intervals.
Even the canter is getting an upgrade. A long awaited return to Cambridge parkrun on Saturday as my Copenhagen pacer Sean is heading there for the day. Then a local 10k race on Sunday. A perfect weekend.
The Eat
No eat to discuss just yet, off to a German bar with the work guys tonight, I see bratwurst in my future......

Easy does it

Yesterday's run became this morning's run as I swapped running shoes over & got back out for an easy paced run. The morning light is slowly being lost & with fog being the order of the morning I had to find some urban routes around Stansted rather than head down the usual country lanes.
Not much to write about today. My pace was up above 6:00/km as I struggled for momentum of constantly changing direction / crossing roads. It is also the start of a new training plan, motivation can be hard to find at times.
One thing I did realise early on, not long sleeved weather just yet! A nice sweat was the result.
In theory I'm running the work canter tomorrow. Whether I can find the desire to thrash around Westminster whilst avoiding tourists during lunchtime remains to be seen.

Stats!

I'm in the office early, instead of running this morning. So to add some running focus to my day I've managed to work out how to create a nice graph in Excel.

A visual representation of my parkrun progress over the past three years. Of course this doesn't take into account any conditions or different runs, but it is a nice indicator of when I've been quick & when I've been slow. For example, my PB at the start of 2012 remains in place to this day, though recent improvements (and increases in the number of parkruns participated in) suggest it might be broken soon.
It is also fitting that my slowness at the end of 2012 / start of 2013 is very clear to see. Injuries / lack of training / extra weight. The graph doesn't tell the entire story, the Highbury & Islington January 2013 run was in the ice after all!
The trend since March this year is especially pleasing though. It was after the MK Half in January that I adopted a training plan & it looks to be paying dividends.

Chelmsford parkrun

The alarm sounds at 0715 on a Saturday, what kind of a fool sets an alarm that early on a weekend? A parkrun fool of course! Being a parkrun nomad means that an early wake up & a 30+ minute drive are always a requirement to getting a quick 5k in.
A group of five parkrun tourists descended on Chelmsford Central parkrun yesterday morning. I was immediately confused by a funfair sitting exactly where the start / finish line was last time I visited. Conditions we certainly more helpful than my previous visit, no ice or snow to be seen anywhere. Mrs H wasn't running, an autumnal cold had caught her.

The Run
After the pre race brief we headed to the start line. The first thing I noticed was how much the event had grown since January. We were underway and I tried to settle into a rhythm. I passed the first km marker under the 5 minute mark & kept running around the 5:00/km pace. My plan was to aim for 25:00 or just under, see how to body was after the more painful than expected half marathon recovery.
Throughout the latter half of the run I felt like I was running on empty, perhaps salad the night before & a slice of toast in the morning was insufficient? That said, I usually run empty before work so I'm used to the feeling. Around halfway we also veered off the nice tarmac path to take in some grass. I know many runners prefer grass to pavement, I've never been one of them. We also encountered the course's only hill, a fairly easy 10 metre incline followed by a straight descend back onto the tarmac.
I soon hit the 4km marker, the mental soundtrack always seems to be "just 5 minutes to go", much like last week's "just 5km to go". My pace was still good, I felt like a high 24 was on the cards as I started to find more final kilometre pace. Only when I got to 400m to go did I realise my time was going to be much faster. With approx 2 minutes of running left my watch was still mid 22:00, so I kicked at 400 & tried to maintain the pace to the end.
I crossed the line in 24:26. Five seconds quicker than at Oak Hill a month ago and only five above my 5km personal best. Given that I wasn't PB hunting yesterday & other than half marathons all of my month's training has been easy, I'm very happy with that result. My 11 week plan to the end of November includes five parkrun visits currently, that PB might just get broken soon.
Even more impressive was the result our friend Joely returned. For the past couple of months myself & Fergie had been encouraging / borderline bullying him into making some progress with his running. Yesterday Fergie's job was to pace Joel to a 35:00 PB. Joel crossed the line in 32:52, an incredible 3:07 off of his PB. Joel was the first to ask when we're parkrunning next! It's great to see a friend get the enjoyment & sense of achievement from all the hard work.

The Eat
After some shopping around Chelmsford we headed home, baked up a camembert, baked up some garlic & had a lazy afternoon. Even managed a lie in this morning, it's nice to wake up and not have a half marathon to run!!!

Autumn Season: 3 days in, 1 run missed already!

Just three days into my autumn ten week plan & I'm missing a run! Unfortunately a combination of still painful quads & needing to replace the car battery meant that I didn't get out on Wednesday. When I did venture onto the pavements yesterday it was with every intention of being the easiest run in history.
I think I averaged 6:30/km, a far cry from my half marathon pace of Sunday. I'm a bit concerned that the quads are still a bit painful, by Weds they've normally sorted themselves out. I suspect that two half marathons in two weekends can have a negative affect! So I've been trying to stretch out as much as possible, I see a hot bath in my immediate future for tonight, lots of Natural Hero to be applied!
Tomorrow is parkrun day. We're returning to Chelmsford & bringing some friends with us. I last ran there on an icy day in January, returning a 27:22. I should be able to run much faster than that tomorrow......

Copenhagen Half

1:57:15. A half marathon PB. Grasping the sublime from the ridiculous. From not racing the night before to a PB. It was quite the weekend!

Fourteen weeks of training. 340 kilometers in the legs. Three parkruns. Two very different 10k races. One Olympic (park) medal. One sceptical wife. Two dodgy calves. 30,000 avios airmiles. One farcical half marathon seven days before the event. All culminating to a pleasant Scandinavian morning, the Powerade Copenhagen Half Marathon.
I arrived at the start line knowing I'd trained better than before, results starting to come back to my best. The fact I even made it to the start line was an effort in itself, my weekend to that point had been reminiscent of Sideshow Bob & the rakes. First on Friday morning I woke up with a scratchy throat. Usually the precursor to something far worse, a sore throat is hardly helpful when you need to stay hydrated before, during & after the event. I then started feeling increasingly tired & useless at work, couldn't even put it down to holiday syndrome! I left early, soon having visions of being the douche that delays everyone else's commute by passing out. By the time I made it home my only intention was to get some sleep in to try & recover. Sleep & steak remedied the situation temporarily (especially as we thought the oven had given up), once we'd picked up our friends Sean & Emily I also tried some medicinal gin.
A horrid night of broken sleep left me knackered before even driving to Heathrow. Thankfully Mrs H took the keys, only for us to find the car completely non compliant! At 0315 you have few options, so the £105 taxi to the airport made for an expensive start to the weekend. British Airways then added to the fun by leaving our plane open all evening, necessitating a security sweep & a 45 minute delay to us departing.
Thankfully I used the flight as a sleeping opportunity so by the time we got to Copenhagen I was feeling almost human. 

Unfortunately by 9pm I was trying to sleep, temperature soaring in a sweatbox of a hotel room that was devoid of air conditioning. I'd made the decision at that point not to run. I didn't want to be the runner collapsing at the side of the road, ambulance riding in a foreign country. I knew that this half was meant to be the climax of a summer of training, but at that point I needed to make a sensible decision, I'd be observing the event from the sidelines.

The Run

Fortunately once I got some deep sleep I felt sufficiently ok to give the race a go. Dosed up on Lemsip, Benzocaine, Nurofen & able to take on some food, I donned my Mind vest & headed to the start line. We were due to go our separate ways at the start, Sean up to hunt a 1:45, me 1:55 & Paula 2:05 & a bit of a tourist run. Sean suggested / cajoled / dragged me past the 1:55 bunch & closer to 1:50, offering to pace me early in the race to get me ahead of the clock. I might be giving credit where it isn't due but it was a master stroke in reading the situation from Sean. He knew that I wasn't 100% & pushing me faster at the start knowing that I fade in races meant that I would be in a better position than starting with the 1:55 pacers & falling further back as the race continued.

A 1:55 half marathon requires a pace of 5:27/km (no idea what the mile splits are, always been a KM runner). This means splits of 27:15 / 5km, 54:30 / 10km, 1:21:45 / 15km, 1:49:00 / 20km. A crucial time is at the eleventh km, 59:57 or lower means a 1:55 is still on track.

The start area was well spaced, just enough space & in credit to the organisers, we started dead on 11:00, something many big event organisers in the UK should learn from. No waved starts, but lots of pacers so the field knew where to place themselves.

So with a short Danish countdown we were underway, we crossed the line a mere 4 minutes after the leaders, great organisation. Sean pushed me to a great early pace, my first km was more 5k pace than half marathon! I felt decent, after 10 minutes Sean's job was complete so he pushed on & I settled into a race pace. Throughout the first 10k I was under the target time, by 9k I was nearly 30 seconds under where I needed to be. The tenth kilometre proved difficult, cobbled streets were energy sapping, but at 54:28 I was still & managed to recover the 11th km to cross at exactly 59:57.
Into the second hour of the run & I knew that an achieveable 55 minute 10k would hand me a 1:55 finish. Unfortunately another encounter with some cobbled streets in the centre of town slowed my progress & stupidly trying to take on some Powerade (not recommended as a face wash) also hindered my progress. I think it was between 13 & 14km that I was caught by the 1:55 pacers. This spurred me on temporarily as I tried to stay ahead of them, but they soon overtook me & stayed tantalisingly out of reach for the rest of the run. I felt the 3rd quarter was my worst of the race, even though statistically I was still returning a 5:35/km pace, it is where I lost momentum & had to readjust my goals.
I'm not sure what happened in the final five kilometers. My pace dropped to 5:47/km, yet I didn't feel myself slowing significantly. I was in a bizarre no mans land of knowing that my desired 1:55 was out of the window, yet could run with no pressure & deliver a personal best. It isn't a situation I've ever faced before & it probably paid a part in my relaxing my pace. The course was an out & back loop of the city so I knew where the 20km marker was & I upped the music volume, attempting to up my pace to the line. The final corner was negotiated & I could see the finish line. Turns out the finish line was a long stretch down the road, no matter how hard I ran it seemed to be getting further away, not closer!!!!

I crossed the line at 1:57:15, grabbed some water, drank some Powerade rather than throw it over my face & pick up a medal. I found Sean & Emily in a slightly busy post race area, Sean just missed a PB (probably due to pacing some schmuck early on!!!) so I treated them both to a record six wringings of my race headband! Paula joined us a few minutes later, having run an enjoyable 2:08 as a tourist taking in all of the sights.

My splits

26:57 / 5km

54:28 / 10km

1:22:19 / 15km

1:51:12 / 20km

The Eat
It's safe to say that Copenhagen is a great city for a foodie. An even better one if you're a foodie with a half marathon sized appetite! We headed to Tivoli, Denmark's playground on Sunday evening to check out the theme park & see what food options there were on offer. I wanted to sample the recommended Hot Dog stand, but only once we'd entered the park did we realise the stand was actually outside the park! After a lap of the park, taking in every option, we settled on some burgers, an easy but comforting option! We made up for the dirty burgers by heading to one of Copenhagen's oldest & finest open sandwich restaurants on our final afternoon. The spread of salmon, cream cheese, onions, potatoes & chives on top of a piece of rye was excellent. We never did make it to that hot dog stand.....

The Conclusion
If at the start of the 14 weeks of training you'd offered me a 1:57, I'd have probably declined it, believing I could achieve much more. Over those 14 weeks though I've managed to get back to near my best & brought an enjoyment back to my running. 1:55 might have been an overly optimistic target, but if you make a challenge too easy what do you gain? I'm happy with the 1:57, especially given how ill I felt the night before. It's my first PB in any distance since October 2012 & has shown me what can be achieved. I'll get that 1:55, why not at my 10th half?

One last easy

Recovery from RTTB has been decent this week. Regular icing of my calf / achilles, rolling of quads and regular stretching have worked well. I was due to run twice this week but felt a run on Tuesday was unwise.
So we get to my last training run at the end of a 14 week plan. An easy run, joined by Mrs H around the stansted loop. It was good to get out again and shake off the rest of the RTTB pain, nearly 45 mins made it one of our slowest loops but that's not overly relevant.
It's been an enjoyable 14 weeks, training to a plan had made a real difference to me & I've got back to my best far quicker than imagined. I'm relaxed ahead of Sunday, 1:55 is the target & it's well within my grasp.

Run to the Beat - the anti-runner event

I don't normally win competitions. By normally, I mean never. So when Runners Need we're offering Run to the Beat places I fired and forgot my entry, noting that the date was earlier than previous years & just a week before the Copenhagen half. Nothing to worry about though, I don't win things, I'll just taper normally for CPH. 

To my surprise (or possibly due to being the only entrant) I was a winner, a winner that had an opportunity to compete in London's Dullest Running Event, at least I think that's their tag line. A quick revision of my training plan swapped a 60 minute taper run for my prize of nearly two hours of competition miles. 

Pre RTTB

I arrived in my provided Nike uniform, incorrect date and all (a mere 19,000 shirts were printed by the organiser before they realised the date might be slightly wrong!). A charity shirt might have been an option, but that meant bureaucracy, something that given the post race experience I'm glad I didn't deal with. This meant I missed out on one of my running highlights, having random strangers shout (mostly) encouraging things at you whilst you struggle around the course. Team Nike suggested this wouldn't be an issue as they'd be so much music around the course you'd not hear much else. 

The uphill walk to the race village was a chilling preview of mile 12 pain to come. The race village itself was nice and large, in a credit to the organisers I've only seen more portaloos at the Stockholm Half!

Even wearing a corporate headband

The Run

I made my way to the 1:40-2:00 holding pen ahead of time, like 98% of the runners, warmed up & took in the atmosphere. Nike decided to add some artificial atmosphere by playing music across everyone so that any runners that wanted to talk had no choice but to listen to low grade commercial radio. The start was delayed, hardly a surprise for a major event but six years into running an event you'd think that someone might have invested in a watch. The delay necessitated another nervous wee, a whole night of IBS and stomach cramps following an overload of pasta had left me feeling a bit wretched. 

Once I crossed the line all of the pre race anxieties soon went away and I settled into a nice rhythm. I knew the target pace was 5:27/km & after four miles I was nicely under a 1:55. For the first four miles the course had been wide, both sides of the road. The course then narrowed to a single carriageway, not a huge problem, but the field was yet to spread out. The organisers then played their hand, they don't like runners. As we approached the Royal Artillery Barracks a megaphone wielding man made us aware of a gate we'd have to pass through. At most it was 8 foot wide and with runners coming in and out the entire field ground to a halt. Some opted to go straight on & sacrifice the HM distance instead of rhythm. I waited it out, all for a lap of the parade ground that seemed to be a cynical advertising spot for some over hyped coconut drink. Another walking queue to exit the parade ground & I was free to try and resuscitate my run. I suspect the delays cost me at least 2 minutes, perhaps as many as 5, plus the effort to try and establish my pace once more. 

With the bottleneck out of my way I was ready to take on the rest that south London had to offer. Unfortunately the race director decided to showcase their love for the U turn as shortly after the barracks was the first of 5 included in the route! Five U turns? There is nothing more defeating that running for no reason? The social media from the event said "Run the first two thirds with your body, the last third with your mind" yet their approach seemed to be to crush the runner's mindset with U turns & monotony. 

Despite all of this the run was progressing reasonably well. I wanted to be through 11km / 7 miles in an hour as I know I'm a positive split runner still. 10 miles at 1:30 meant a 1:57 was possible. The obstacles kept mounting up though, chaotic water stations, more U turns and another significant narrowing of the course as we entered Greenwich Park all hit my rhythm.

Spot the bottleneck & U turns!

Soon the Mile 12 marker was in front of me, the hill of doom separating me from the finish. Had a 1:55 been on I think I'd have made it up. Instead, drained more mentally than physically by the brutal nature of the course I started walking. A spectator tried to keep me going but realised after a polite brush off to not bother. I walked, then fast walked up the hill, hoping that my legs could recover for a strong last km. As the crest approached I kicked into running again, but in another act of cruelty the organisers chucked in two more meandering U turns. When you think the U is coming and then turn a corner to see it's another few metres away you wonder what the point is. I was defeated as I took the final corner. Even with the finish line in sight a sprint was hard to muster. Crossing the line in 1:59:53 was a disappointment, I knew I had better pace but was happy to finish.

The cruelty wasn't over, for some reason cable ties were too expensive for the organisers so we had to de-shoe and un-lace to remove the timing chip and then be funnelled through a narrow exit area before we would be released from the ordeal. In an event designed to be anti runner I'm surprised there wasn't someone in the sponsor's gear giving everyone the finger as they finished. We left the village as soon as my legs could muster it, didn't want to suffer some shitty pop music to complete the pain.

Knackered, just needed to lie down post race

The Eat

I feel no shame in gorging on KFC post race. It, like the race has no discernible qualities! We did follow it with some amazing fish at a family meal for my father in law's 60th in the evening, so it wasn't all bad.

The Colonel ordered me to eat more fried chicken

The Conclusion

Two days on I can reflect on the positives I can take from the race:

Competitive Miles - Nothing can create a race atmosphere, even if the event was lacking, there are always other runners. 

Pace - My early pace and latter half prove I can muster a 1:55 time. It might not have been a PB but so what? If I can run a 1:59 and it be a disaster then I'm in a good place. Had I been faced with the same circumstances earlier this year I'd have been returning a 2:10 and be questioning the point of it all. 

Miles - The longest run I've had since MK Half in March. That's partly due to missing training runs, something to work on for next time. 

Injury free - Save for a delightful blister and some muscle ache, everything seems to be ok. I'm never going to be 100% and the turn around for CPH is short, but I'm happy. 

Nice cherry on the side of my foot

UPDATE:
The organisers have been in touch with everyone that emailed thoughts & seem to have sent a generic response & a promise to refund all runners £10. Even their apology needs more work!

One last run

I've never been a fan of tapering, perhaps because I always go into a race feeling undercooked. The shoehorning of Run to the Beat on Sunday into my Copenhagen training plan has slightly confused the issue. This time around I'm feeling good, feeling prepared. The training has gone well, pace has returned. Whether I needed one more long run to guarantee stamina remains to be seen, I think the energy is there though as I've been less reliant on energy gels when running 75+ mins.
Who knows what Sunday will bring, the target is to break 1:55 & then do it all over again a week later in Copenhagen.
The Run
The last run before RTTB, decided against anything silly, hill sprints & fartlek were off the menu! A beautiful misty morning greeted me yesterday & the loop out to the west of Stansted provided the scenery. It's a loop I probably overdo during the summer, compensating for it being off limits over the winter, country lanes and no daylight does not make for a great combination. The loop is an undulating 7km that can be run either north or southbound, I opted for south yesterday as the long hill back to the house will best mimic the mile 11 hill on the RTTB course.
7km in 42 mins, easy as you like, tapering done (save for a squash game today).
The Eat
A late finish to work, spinning head, lack of gin & contempt for cooking providing a dinner solution. A big dirty Domino's pizza! It's carb loading yes?

A new season, a new plan

September has started & that means the season is changing from summer to autumn. The 15th marks the end of my current training plan, the Copenhagen half being the pinnacle.

This left my autumn plans a bit empty. A lot revolves around a London Marathon place for 2014, something I won't know about until mid October. One intention was to have a month off, another to run streak for a month. These conflicting ideas led to a more sensible middle of the road approach - stick to the norm.
No further half marathons are booked in, I have a wishful eye on Bermuda in January & a more serious eye on the Helsinki half in May. Nothing for 2014 will be booked until I know whether I need to conquer 26.2 miles of London's tarmac.

So here's the next 10 week plan, something to work on until the end of November. No long distances, though a 10 miler might be on for November at some point. If the VLM 2014 ballot entry is successful then the latter half of the plan will probably be ripped up!

An easy hour

Sleep took precedence over running at the weekend. A trip to the south coast to see friends also interfered with plans for a long run. One idea was to run late on Sunday evening, but a roast dinner was far more appealing!
So to Monday, a mere seven days before Run to the Beat. The plan over the weekend was to clock 90 minutes, the middle third at HM pace. A Monday morning before work doesn't quite allow for this, so an hour / 10km at an easy pace was the target this morning. I felt decent throughout the run, resting up the past couple of weeks was paying dividends. My pace was also a pleasant surprise, meaning the hour target was nicely smashed!
Overall I'm happy, a longer run would have been preferable, but with only days to the first of two HMs in two Sundays I'm in a good place.