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.............................
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