Theresas training

Last week I managed about 29 miles again – so that was
two weeks in a row with high mileage. This past week
though the mileage has come down, circumstances and a
race all at once!

Last Sunday Sheila Kerr and I headed out at about 3pm,
we were worried in the morning that it might be too
hot, however seemed that we had planned our run at the
best possible time as it had cooled down by then. We
ran on through John Muir Country Park and did a small
loop in the beach before heading back. Think we made
it to about 5 miles, maybe a bit further.

On Tuesday we headed out from Halhill, up to Spott,
down to the first ford and up Daniel’s Brae. I stuck
at the back of the pack with Sheila Kerr – probably a
good move given the mileage covered at the weekend.
The weather was crap – it was raining as we left and
my shower-proof jacket kept me dry for all of about 2
minutes. As we headed down from little Spott the
heavens opened. We were absolutely soaked. Although
in a perverse sort of way the run itself was quite
nice (and I made it up all the hills, and didn’t stop
on Daniel’s Brae - not even when the big 4x4 tried to
run me off into the ditch…..

On Thursday we had intervals – 6x600m in 4mins and
6x300m in approx 2 – well we got to walk back to the
start point, so if you were slow at walking we got a
bit more rest! Not bad session though. I have
decided that I don’t like anything longer than 400m –
seems far too long! I was trying to pace myself in a
conservatory way due to the Glasgow Women’s 10k on
Sunday, however, couldn’t contain myself. The last
600m I did 10 seconds faster than the others. On the
300m the last 3 I ran quite quickly (thought I’d
better put some effort in to beat Fay, Sheila et al)
and the last one I really did go as fast as possible
(at that stage that isn’t that fast really……)

So onto Sunday and the women’s 10k – bet Anne is
regretting telling me how to work out my splits!
Sheila and I were separated this year, as we both made
the mistake about being honest on our entry forms
about the expected completion time so were put in
different coloured groups, only to find that most
other people had just stood where they fancied. We
were overtaking people walking after only 2-3 minutes
of running – and they thought they would finish in
less than an hour? Some of them seemed to think they
would finish in less than 50 minutes…..

Anyway here are the splits:
1st km 5.38 – tripping over those slow people in front
of me
2nd km 5.31 – still weaving my way round but getting
slightly better
3rd km 5.27 – getting there….
4th km 5.21 – thank goodness, getting to some clearer
running
5th km 5.27 – oh dear – on the way back up again
6th km 5.29
7th km 5.44 – the first major (ish) hill – Pollock
Park
8th km 5.55 – more hills, clearly worse than the last
one
9th km 5.21 – feeling relieved, it’s nearly all over
10th km 5.05 – can really put the effort in, it’s the
end!

Total 55.03 (matches the chip time, so I must be
pretty accurate at this recording malarkey!). Sheila
M – 53.58. Last year I got 55.56 and Sheila got
54.03, so I knocked off 53 seconds from last year, and
closed the gap a bit on Sheila from previous….just
need to keep moving in the right direction (and get
Sheila to move in the wrong one – this won’t work if
she keeps improving too!)

Had a peek to see how Emma did – think she did 47.28.
I can only dream…..

So the weather was hot, I was tripping over people for
much of the way and I ran with my ipod for the first
time in a race (which did help at those points were
you really could give up – gave you something else to
focus on. Also couldn’t hear how heavy my own
breathing was – a good thing I think!) I now have an
interesting running injury from the ipod – it nips a
bit! Now have to decide whether to ipod or not at
Loch Leven??????

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# posted by user : 1:50 PM