Comfortable track session

This evening's track session was a shorter one than normal: 8X400m with 30 second recoveries, then a 2 minute recovery followed by another 8X400m with 30 seconds recoveries. I was very mindful that I'd pushed it a bit too hard last week, so decided to take it a bit easier this time.

I was running with Nick P & someone from Otley AC. We did the first set of 400s at 87/88 seconds, then the second set at 86/87 seconds. Considering that it was very cold with a very strong wind, this was a quite respectable pace, equivalent to about 3:37 per km.

I felt as though I could have run another 8X400 at the same pace & most importantly I had no adverse reaction from my troublesome achilles/calf. Overall it was quite a satisfying session.

Things look OK now for the 5 mile race on Sunday. My target is to get under 30 minutes, which should be feasible if the weather isn't too bad.

I heard today that Ilkley Harriers have been offered a place in the National road relay on 17 April. It's only the 2nd time we have qualified for this. I now have some work to do to get a team together as some of our runners from the Northern relay aren't available.

Just an easy run

I managed to avoid the heavy showers today. I did a steady hilly run around Ilkley on both sides of the valley, about 14k in total. My intention was to take it easy to avoid aggravating the achilles injury.

Not sure about the track session tomorrow evening & the race on Sunday. I think that I'll go to the track, but not do to much of a hard session & then decide after that whether Sunday's 5 mile race is feasible.

I've now slipped down the UK 10k rankings for M55 to 5th place. It's not really surprising as there are quite a lot of 55 year olds who are faster than me, but it was good to be top of the rankings for a few weeks. So far I've still got a 100% record for M55 category wins in the road races that I've done.

Route of Harrogate League race

Today I decided to risk running on my dodgy achilles/calf, the idea being that I'd stop or cut the route short if it became sore. I ran the route of the forthcoming race in the Harrogate & District Summer Race League organised by Ilkley Harriers. It's a hilly 4.8 miles starting near Ilkley Rugby Club, then going uphill along Owler Park Road to the top of Middleton, before descending Carters Lane & back along Denton Road. I added on a section through the park at the beginning & end to make it almost 12k in total.

My achilles wasn't causing me any problems during the run, although I was taking it fairly easy, running around the actual race route in about 38 minutes (looking at the results of the last time the race was run that would've still put me in the first half of the field). It was quite wet during the run with fairly continuous heavy rain & not too warm.....it's even forecasted that we could have some snow in the next few days.

Not sure about racing the Halton 5 on Sunday. If my achilles is causing me problems, it's a long way to travel. The only reason to go is to try to run a fast time, so if that's not possible, I'd be better giving it a miss.

Wakefield 10k

Today I had an off day at the Wakefield 10k. My finishing time of 39:16 was my slowest 10k for about a year. It was an early start with the clocks going forward an hour. It was bright & sunny, but the wind was certainly quite strong.

I was surprised how tough the course was, it was mainly uphill for the first half with a headwind making progress difficult. On the return downhill section, I seemed to struggle to get the benefit from the tailwind. My km splits were all over the place from a fastest 3:37 (6th) to a slowest 4:22 (5th).

My troublesome right achilles & calf didn't give me any pain during the race, but was very sore afterwards. I think that I need to take it easy for a while now to let this injury properly recover.

Overall it was disappointing to be more than 2 minutes slower than I ran at the Dewsbury 10k at the beginning of February. Talking to club mates after the race most were a few seconds slower than at Dewsbury, so I seem to have been relatively much slower.

Two bridges run again

After not running yesterday, it was not really going to be an option to have a run free day again today. I didn't get chance to go running until late afternoon, just as we started to have some heavy showers. I wasn't sure how my temperamental right calf & achilles would react after Wednesday's track session.

I headed off on my regular two bridges run for the second time this week. My pace was quicker than my slow steady run pace, but still about a minute per km slower than my 10k race pace. No real problems with the calf/achilles, just a bit of minor soreness, nothing to worry about.

Not sure about running tomorrow, the sensible option would be to rest before Sunday's race, but I may well go out for a very easy run if I really feel the urge.

Shortened track session

I cut short my track session this evening as the calf above my troublesome achilles became really tight & I didn't want to risk doing any serious damage to it. The planned session was 4X400m, 3X600m, 2X800m, 1X1000m, 3X400m, 2X600m, with 30seconds recovery between the 400s, 40 seconds between the 600s, 1 minute between the 800s & 2 minutes before the 1000m. The idea was to run the efforts faster than 5k race pace, especially the 1000m.

I was running with Mark I & Dave B for most of the session as well as someone from Otley AC. The first set of 400s averaged 81 seconds, the 600s 2:08 & the 800s a bit slower at 2:55. For the 1000m we then picked up the pace again to run 3:29. By the time we got to the second set of 400s, I was starting to feel the efforts in my achilles/calf and slowed to 86 seconds. I then opted out of the final 2X600m.

Not sure how serious the injury is, tomorrow I won't run as I'm driving to Norfolk & back. I might not run on Friday as well to give it more of a chance to recover. Apart from the calf problem, I was very pleased with the way I was running, particularly the sub 3:30 km - although that's probably what triggered the muscle tightness.

Slowly does it

Another day, another slow run. Still feeling a bit lethargic & with tomorrow's track session & Sunday's Wakefield 10k, I opted for a short easy run today. It was the favourite two bridges run from Ilkley to Addingham and back, 11.5k.

Conditions were OK: dry, not too cold, not much wind & not many people around. My pace was comfortable, but I seemed to be quite tired in my legs. I guess that I'm getting used to running most of my training runs at a very slow pace then being able to speed up considerably for track sessions & races. It is curious that as I do most of my training runs at an ever slower pace, my race speed seems to continue to improve.

I'm looking forward to the race on Sunday, it will be interesting to see if I can run quicker than my recent time at the Dewsbury 10k. According to the Power of Ten UK rankings, that is still the second fastest 10k for my age group in the UK this year (and there is a question mark over the time that's faster than mine, as the runner is unidentified).