Theresas training

Now I've tried the shorts….lets just say I think I'll be testing them in the dark. Good job I'm an average height with good thighs on me. Any shorter or thinner and I think they'd be ¾ lengths!

Latest training update then….

Thurs 21 – options were 5 x either 1km or 1.4km in 7.5 mins. I did 4 of the 5 then got a stitch on the last one. Possibly due to eating a nice bran bagel from the bagel factory in Waverley station less than an hour before running. Thought I was starving, but guess that's unlikely….. My fastest km was 4.55, which is more than my fastest in a race would be. Weird.

Sat 24 – went out quite early with Sheila as I was having a sports massage at 12, then heading along to the rugby (bit of a mistake that one). We ran from Belhaven up to Eweford, Wester Broomhouse and down the closed road and on up to Spott (where we ran past Amanda). Then we headed down the hill and up Daniels Brae, where miracle upon miracle I made it up ahead of Sheila. (she said I had to put that in). We then headed down towards Eweford, but ran up by the Pleasance over the grassy track again to Wester Broomhouse. Then we ran down to Eweford, West Barns, the dump road and back to Belhaven. The weather was great – it was warm and calm. We were running well – a good pace too (at one stage I think we managed to be about 10 minutes ahead of where we would have been in the run when we headed out last year).

Sun 25 – I was only going to do about 6 today, but Sheila was planning a long one so with a few long races on the way I thought it would be a good plan to join her. Again we ran from Belhaven up to Eweford, Wester Broomhouse and down the closed road. Then we headed up Val's SAS route (the track up the field towards Spott Farm). I ran up the track without stopping (well until the top) but that is huge improvement on usual. Then we ran up the track over the hill (Doon hill) and right through a field. (sort of parallel to the normal path behind Spott Farm but up a bit). Then we joined the track that we would use to run up the Brunt. By this time we were nearly at the top of the hill so thought we'd better carry on up. Amazing views – and I felt more virtuous due to the fact that I'd nearly run all the way (any stops were on the flat easy bits….) We then ran through some field (avoiding the livestock) and joined the road at the bottom at the Brunt, running along the road and then down Starvation brae towards Spott. We then headed down to the Ford and again up Daniel's Brae. By this time the hill running had obviously taken it's toll as I just couldn't face running all the way up the hill. This time Sheila bet the pants off me….. from here we ran back heading toward Dunbar, again taking the path by the Pleasance up to Wester Broomhouse, Eweford, and Belhaven. It was cooler and windier than yesterday but still a decent day for the running.

Tues 27 – I'd lost my running watch some point between Sunday and packing my stuff up on Tues morning, however had found my GPS so thought I'd use it instead. How wrong I was. There is ongoing debate about the reliability of the club GPS as it measures the full club town run as about 6.3 or 6.4 whereas most of us think its longer. My GPS clearly wasn't working well as it said 5.9, and measured us as running about 5 minutes less than Lindsay's watch has. Think Lindsay might kill me as I made her run the full route in anticipation of the measure, through howling winds and icy icy cold rain – so hard it was actually similar to hail. Good run though, and felt virtuous (again – that would be far too many times within the space of a week!) at having run the full route.

Thurs 1 – was trying Ian R's theory that you need to have a good warm up prior to running the 5km. Neil and I headed out nearly as soon as we were changed – I did 9 laps warm up and Neil did 10. (I also knew I was only going to fit in 3 runs this week so needed to increase the mileage on this one to make it count). So the warm up was good but the 5km was not so hot. Ian R had decided to set a far too optimistic and challenging time for me to start with. Alison and I headed off together as she had never run the route before. We got passed before we turned into Lochend road, to which I commented that we were unlikely to win! Boy was I right – think we managed to fill the last positions. I was more upset at Ian's question as to whether we had been talking on the way round. Talking? I could barely breathe never mind talk.
Although I've got my new club vest now – it's pretty cool. It's got my name on the back in green and black lettering. Looks quite smart – hope it makes me go faster!

And finally – today…
Sun 4 – first race of the year. Lasswade 10 miles….Just reading through last years entry to see how much I moaned. Not that much considering. Don't think I enjoyed much of the run at all – well it was ok from 6 miles onwards. That was when I started to feel a bit more human, and got my breath back from the nasty first hill. I won't even start to suggest I ran all the way – stopped on first nasty big hill (Roslin Glen) and again just up round the corner to try to catch my breath. Then at 5 miles – but not for long there. Horrible head wind on a lot of the hills, which did make breathing really really difficult. Walking bits are quite obvious when looking at the splits….

1 – 8.38
2 – 8.16
3 – 10.18 (nasty big hill)
4 – 9.01
5 – 10.25 (first half = 46.40)
6 – 10.20
7 – 9.06
8 – 9.01
9 – 9.04
10 – 8.56 (second half = 46.30, total 1.33.10)

Quite even really – well the first too were too fast, and the hilly ones too slow but otherwise I guess I am quite pleased….and ran a negative split (just).

Anyway, did manage a pb….official time (unscrutinised) 1.33.26. Previous pb was 1.37.14 so nearly 4 minutes off. Think the rest of the club managed to get pretty good times as well.

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