Weds 31st was the first race of the Wednesday League at Barnham. I love this league, short sharp 5-6k cross country races that, in combination with speedwork at the track, can really help to sharpen fitness. Barnham is a great course with forest trails and tank traps. I got a poor start and got stuck behind some slower men for the first 200m. Once the field opened up I was able to move back up to my usual slot. I felt good, my legs were strong and I was able to work hard enough to be a little out of breath. I kept a consistent pace throughout and finished first lady.
A recovery gym session on Thursday morning and a 30 minute run on the treadmill on Friday set me up for a hill session in Ickworth Park followed by a kilometre swim on Saturday. On Sunday the weather was horrendous. I couldn't face trudging through the mud again so ran on the treadmill for 90 minutes. I have to say I found the long run on the treadmill harder than running outside!
I scheduled gym sessions on Monday and Tuesday in preparation for the Wednesday League cross country race at Gt Yarmouth. However, on wednesday morning things didn't go quite to plan! I woke up with a cold and during the morning felt progressively worse. By 11am I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to run. I was really disappointed as it was a beautiful day and I had been looking forward to the second race of the league.
Belfast British and Irish Masters International was on the Saturday and I had to do all I could to be well enough to at least try and run! Even though I was only running in the reserves and open race I wanted to capitalise on the opportunity to get myself noticed and run well. We had already paid for flights, parking and a hire car so I decided that we would travel out there and see how I felt on the warm up. The flight wasn't the most comfortable experience with blocked sinuses and I felt pretty lousy when we got to the airport although a hot coffee and toasted cheese sandwich did improve things a little!
The team race was great to watch with a sprint finish between the leaders with a mistaken location of the finish line the deciding factor in the winner. The course was three laps and starting to get very churned up in places. I felt pretty grim warming up, sneezing and coughing up muck and my teeth chattering so much I though they were going to break. Once I had got warm I felt a little bit better and decided to give it a go.
I got a good start and was on the back of the group of leading men. Unfortunately I lost my footing in the first 200m and fell flat on my face! I got back on my feet fairly quickly but had been overtaken by two women and lost contact with the lead men. I took the two places back fairly quickly and got myself back as lead lady but was way off the lead men now.
I felt ok and was able to hold a good pace. I overtook a chap who had fallen off the back of the lead men early on but other than that was on my own for most of the race. I finished comfortably as first lady which I was really pleased with but also a little disappointed that it wasn't much of a race and more of a tempo run.
I managed a steady 13 mile long run the following day. I still felt pretty rough the following week so only did gym and treadmill sessions. My second Essex League race was on Saturday and I wanted to give myself as much of a chance as possible to recover in time. I enjoy the Essex League as it is a very high standard of competition with great racing.
The race was at Hylands Park in Chelmsford. The course was two laps with a mixture of woodland and grassland and very boggy in places. I had a great race and felt strong throughout moving up three places on the second lap. I finished fourth lady, 30 seconds behind the winner. I don't think I could have done anything any different to get myself further up the field, its a case of working on my fitness in the second phase of winter training to close the gap.
On Sunday I ran a very easy 11.5 miles, I was still coughing up muck and sneezing a lot so I'm still aware that I need to keep my toe off the pedal in training at the moment until I get rid of the cold completely. I've got three races left in this first phase of winter training; 2 Wednesday League cross country races and a half marathon.
All in all a great weekend; Antonio Felix DeCosta winning in Macau, Norwich beating Man Utd and Lewis Hamilton winning the American Grand Prix, woo hoo!
The second phase of training starts in January. There are less races scheduled so I plan to return to the track and work on increasing my race speed to close the gap...........................
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Saturday, 3 November 2012
First Road Race of the Year
On the Monday after race at Braintree I did a recovery gym session in the morning and stopped off at the track on the way home for a leg stretch. I could feel Saturday's race and Sunday's long run in my legs so only did a warm up, one set of 5x400m and a cool down. Tuesday and Wednesday morning were recovery gym sessions and on Wednesday night I did 4x5 minute reps. I felt strong and confident running at 6 minute mile pace and was happy that the session set me up nicely for the 5 mile road race at Wix on Sunday.
I took the day off on Thursday, and did another recovery gym session on Friday morning and 4 miles on the treadmill on Friday night.
I'm keen to keep my swimming up at the moment, I'm still pretty rubbish at swimming but would like to improve so I try and get to the pool at least once a week. I just managed to get to the pool in time to fit in 40 lengths on Saturday afternoon.
I'd never run at Wix before but had heard that it is a fast course. It was raining pretty hard with puddles everywhere but thankfully wasn't particularly windy. Chris and I warmed up on the last mile of the course to familiarise ourselves with the finish; always helps to know exactly where you are when you're tiring in the last mile!
I wasn't really sure what time I should be aiming for so planned to run at a comfortable pace just below my threshold and see if that got me round in under 31 minutes. My 5 mile PB is 31:17 so a sub 31 would have been a good effort.
I felt good in the first two miles and comfortable at the pace I was running at. After the second mile I started to overtake a few people but still felt comfortable maintaining the pace. I couldn't see my Garmin very clearly due to the rain so had no idea what pace I was running at. I had to work a bit harder to maintain the pace in the latter half of the last mile and after turning in to the finishing straight was shocked to see the clock hadn't reached 30 minutes. I crossed the line in 29:58, knocking 1 minute 18 seconds off my PB and breaking the Pacers FV35 club record. I was over the moon, its taken me 12 years to break 30 minutes for 5 miles!
It wasn't a particularly flat course but the short inclines and long gradual declines contributed to some very fast times. I would highly recommend this race!
Chris ran well under 29 minutes, I couldn't see him after the first mile and Andrew Smith broke his 5 mile PB by over a minute so a good day out for Pacers!
My splits were pretty even, 6 minute mile pace all the way. I think that the multiple sets of longer reps at this pace at the track have been the key factor in this.
After completing another recovery gym session on Monday morning and an easy 4 miles with strides at the track on Monday night it was time to start thinking about the tri-match cross-country race this weekend. After another recovery gym session on Tuesday morning Mick (our coach) advised that I only complete two thirds of the track session on Wednesday night at a comfortable pace. the session was 3 sets of 3x4 minutes. I felt that 6 minute mile pace was comfortable, any slower than that and I wasn't running on my mid-foot and braking whilst I was running which may lead to hamstring tightness .
After a gym session on Thursday morning and 40 lengths of the pool squeezed in before work on Friday morning I felt ready to race on Saturday.
The tri match consists of a ladies and mens cross country race run separately with 3 teams, Eastern region, RAF and Cambridge University. This year it was held at RAF Halton, near Aylesbury so a bit of a trek! Although it was a horrendous day in Suffolk it was at least dry at Halton, although very cold and windy. The two lap course had a couple of hills in it and a section through the woods.
The race went well, I finished 5th lady and felt strong. I overtook another runner in the last kilometre and managed to put my foot down a bit so an improvement on my race at Braintree.
I managed to fit in 40 lengths of the pool on the way home (saves using our shower!). I'm hoping to run a half marathon at the end of November so ran 16 miles steadily on Sunday morning.
Another productive fortnight, I'm happy with the way my running is going at the moment. Still lots of room for improvement but its a long season with a lot of races over the next few weeks so plenty of time to get my act together.............................
I took the day off on Thursday, and did another recovery gym session on Friday morning and 4 miles on the treadmill on Friday night.
I'm keen to keep my swimming up at the moment, I'm still pretty rubbish at swimming but would like to improve so I try and get to the pool at least once a week. I just managed to get to the pool in time to fit in 40 lengths on Saturday afternoon.
I'd never run at Wix before but had heard that it is a fast course. It was raining pretty hard with puddles everywhere but thankfully wasn't particularly windy. Chris and I warmed up on the last mile of the course to familiarise ourselves with the finish; always helps to know exactly where you are when you're tiring in the last mile!
I wasn't really sure what time I should be aiming for so planned to run at a comfortable pace just below my threshold and see if that got me round in under 31 minutes. My 5 mile PB is 31:17 so a sub 31 would have been a good effort.
I felt good in the first two miles and comfortable at the pace I was running at. After the second mile I started to overtake a few people but still felt comfortable maintaining the pace. I couldn't see my Garmin very clearly due to the rain so had no idea what pace I was running at. I had to work a bit harder to maintain the pace in the latter half of the last mile and after turning in to the finishing straight was shocked to see the clock hadn't reached 30 minutes. I crossed the line in 29:58, knocking 1 minute 18 seconds off my PB and breaking the Pacers FV35 club record. I was over the moon, its taken me 12 years to break 30 minutes for 5 miles!
It wasn't a particularly flat course but the short inclines and long gradual declines contributed to some very fast times. I would highly recommend this race!
Chris ran well under 29 minutes, I couldn't see him after the first mile and Andrew Smith broke his 5 mile PB by over a minute so a good day out for Pacers!
My splits were pretty even, 6 minute mile pace all the way. I think that the multiple sets of longer reps at this pace at the track have been the key factor in this.
After completing another recovery gym session on Monday morning and an easy 4 miles with strides at the track on Monday night it was time to start thinking about the tri-match cross-country race this weekend. After another recovery gym session on Tuesday morning Mick (our coach) advised that I only complete two thirds of the track session on Wednesday night at a comfortable pace. the session was 3 sets of 3x4 minutes. I felt that 6 minute mile pace was comfortable, any slower than that and I wasn't running on my mid-foot and braking whilst I was running which may lead to hamstring tightness .
After a gym session on Thursday morning and 40 lengths of the pool squeezed in before work on Friday morning I felt ready to race on Saturday.
The tri match consists of a ladies and mens cross country race run separately with 3 teams, Eastern region, RAF and Cambridge University. This year it was held at RAF Halton, near Aylesbury so a bit of a trek! Although it was a horrendous day in Suffolk it was at least dry at Halton, although very cold and windy. The two lap course had a couple of hills in it and a section through the woods.
The race went well, I finished 5th lady and felt strong. I overtook another runner in the last kilometre and managed to put my foot down a bit so an improvement on my race at Braintree.
I managed to fit in 40 lengths of the pool on the way home (saves using our shower!). I'm hoping to run a half marathon at the end of November so ran 16 miles steadily on Sunday morning.
Another productive fortnight, I'm happy with the way my running is going at the moment. Still lots of room for improvement but its a long season with a lot of races over the next few weeks so plenty of time to get my act together.............................
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