Midweek League Race 2@Stevenage

So, on to the second race in our Summer Midweek League. After the first race we were winning, but only just so we needed another superhuman performace in the second race. The race was in Stevenage and was a measured 10k. I've done this course a number of times before and it isn't the easiest course around, basically you have to slog up a longish hill before cruising back down to the finish. This time, the weather wasn't great either and it was a soggy, miserable evening.
I started off ok, I really wanted to do as well as last time to proove it wasn't a fluke but I was also worried about getting too over excited and setting off too quick. I felt a little heavy legged and my left foot (which has been a bit achey for the last week or so - you should see me getting up from my desk at work, very amusing) gave me a little bit of annoyance but otherwise I didn't feel too bad. The uphill was even longer than I remembered and the downhill wasn't as much of a respite as I had hoped! Depsite my grumbles, I finished in 54:10 which I was pretty pleased with although not quite as fast as last time.
And as a club we did really well, but not quite as well as last time and we were a close second place to FVS. They had a huge number of runners out and did better in both the men's and ladies races. Our ladies were there usual brilliant selves and I think our men did slightly worse than last time and we ended up in second place.
So 2 races to go (one of them is ours) and it's all to play for!

Marathon marathon history

After running my 11th marathon this year I asked our club statto to remind me of my other performances...

13/04/08 33 Marathon London Marathon 04:43:46
22/04/07 32 Marathon London Marathon 05:28:46
18/03/07 31 Marathon Rome Marathon 04:55:05
09/04/06 31 Marathon Paris Marathon 04:29:13
10/04/05 30 Marathon Paris Marathon 04:11:16
18/04/04 29 Marathon London Marathon 04:36:45
04/04/04 29 Marathon Zurich Marthon 04:23:00
06/04/03 28 Marathon Paris Marathon 04:12:00
14/04/02 27 Marathon London Marathon 04:29:51
30/09/01 26 Marathon Berlin Marathon 04:51:24
22/04/01 26 Marathon London Marathon 04:41:52

certainly quite a range!

Next Midweek League

For any NHRR who are reading this, don't forget the next MWL race is at Stevenage on Thursday. I am very excited, we won the last MWL by the smallest of margins and over 50 runners from NHRR took part so it felt like a double success to me.

I wonder how I will get on tomorrow? I asked Statto to find out how my MWL BS time looked compared to my other recent 10k times. Well, good news. It's the fatest 10k I have done in the last 3 years! According to the stats, my fastest 10k in a NHRR vest was 52:57 in October 2004. My top 5 10ks were between 2001 and 2005 so I am pretty impressed with my most recent performance! To be honest, I think it was the yellow socks that did it!!!!

Training week ending 25 May

It's been a busy week this week so my main focus hasn't been running (sadly) but here's my training this week:

Tuesday: am - circuits, pm - 10x300m parlauf/100m recovery
Thursday: am - circuits
Saturday: bootcamp
Sunday: 5 miles

Not a great week running-wise but I have just come back from yet another lovely Sunday run.
Most people reading this blog probably know I am not from Hitchin originally. I'm an exiled northener whose work meant I ended up living and working in Hertfordshire (initially on a 3 month contract - I was going to go back home!), joining NHRR, meeting Gary and unexpectedly deciding to live in Hitchin.
But I was lucky, I love living in Hitchin, it's a great mix of convenient location and loads of nice countryside nearby. Today, was a perfect example. From home, I ran 5 minutes out towards Charlton and then into the countryside. It was raining...I love running in the rain, and everywhere was all green and fresh. OK, so I was off road and there are some heavy muddy paths but they didn't last too long (luckily!). I guess the downside is by the end of the run I was soaked (especially my feet), and my legs were covered in nettle stings (still stinging now I am back!). This kind of run is precisely why I love running.

Training week ending 16 May

Slightly belated but here goes!
This was a week of not that much really...
Tuesday: circuits
Wednesday: MWL@BS (10k)
Thursday: circuits
Saturday: 4 * 7.5 mins@ balke test rate. I managed average 1400m I think)
Sunday: 7.5 miles (this is a top run on a nice sunny day!)

Ran too hard?

I have really sore legs today, maybe I pushed it too hard on Wednesday?
New objective: run sub 54 minutes for 10k and still be able to walk 2 days later!

Midweek League Race 1@Bishops Stortford

Well, tonight we started our summer midweek league. That means the start of me skipping out of meetings early, rearranging meetings (or missing cocktails as happened this week) and getting the train to far flung places around and about. Well, actually, this year we aren't going to too many far flung places thanks goodness!

I managed to get there in plenty of time tonight thanks to the tube, a nice fast train and a taxi ride from the station. On my arrival, Derek had just got the numbers and Lissa was surfing in the car park... It was a little stressful trying to sort out the numbers when it was a bit breezy but we managed it ok and it was on to the race.

It was a lovely evening with a fantastic sunset, I just wish I had had my camera with me! The course was 10k according to the BSRR GPS measurement and was the same course as the last couple of times which looks a bit like a hilly lollipop!

So, on to the run itself. It went really well...I caugh Linda and Gill up which is very unlike me and although Linda strolled off in the last km (her legs are longer than mine) I put up a good showing. This was probably due to having Linda and Karen on my back for most of the race so I had to push quite hard. Lorraine informs me I did this in 55 minutes last year and I did Flitwick in 58 minutes but it looks like I finished this one in around 53:30 (I didn't have my watch on) which...wait for it...means I have met one of my SMART objectives already which was to run under 54 minutes for 10k. I am not going to settle with that, I now want to run under 54 minutes again! I do have a feeling it was a fluke but a repeatable fluke is less flukey somehow...

So, what happened? Where did that come from? Seemingly I have been doing very little training and I also find it hard to run the Midweek League races as I always feel like I have had a herculean journey to get to the races. The simple answer is I don't know but I will take it and enjoy it for a day or 2.

Splogging...

I am not sure if anyone noticed, but for a couple of days, my blog was no longer...
Your blog is disabled. Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog.
I don't know what I did, but apparently I made my blog look like a spam blog. What's a spam blog anyway?
Well, here's a definition from wikipedia...a spam blog is also known as a splog. So there.

Short training update - 11 May

Well, I've been getting back into training...a little bit at least. I've been able to keep up my gym work with my twice weekly circuits and occasional bootcamp classes (and only today noticed I had a new muscle in my arm).
As far as running is concerned, last week was a little tricky what with watching radio shows being recorded, committee meetings and Japanese classes but I did make it out on a lovely run on Saturday morning with CMJ, Chris and Sally. Here's the route:


The weather is lovely right now but I am not a good runner in the heat...too much extra ballast to carry...

So, here's this week's training log:
Mon: Impington 5k approx 27 mins
Tues: circuits
Thurs: circuits
Sat: 6 mile run and bootcamp

OK, so not exactly Olympic material but I'll get there!

Not tired, just not entirely bovvered...

I am not currently entirely enthused about running just now which is unlike me!
Over the bank holiday weekend, I didn't really feel like running (or the Thursday before) so I didn't really. I am not too worried about this, there will be enough running going on in the next few weeks with all the Midweek league races!
However, I did do a 5k on Monday in a village called Impington, near Cambridge.

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It was a village fun run and jolly nice it was too! I finished in 27:17 and really enjoyed it. My main fun was provided by watching the kids around me as they struggled to pace themselves round. They sprinted, walked, sprinted, walked and wily old Cook just kept plodding along and beat them in the end!

Charity pub crawl

I broke the rules and took some photos...this is the only one I will publish though!
And, I sent it from my phone, how clever is that!

Grown up press ups

I just had to share with you my latest achievement...I did 3 proper, real, grown up press ups yesterday at the gym! It's taken me 18 months of circuit training to train myself how to do this, I am rather pleased with myself.
Stupidly, I decided to show off to Gary last night by trying to demonstrate how I can do a grown up press up. This might be the cause of my sore arms and shoulders today, will I ever learn?