Going into these races the main thought going through my mind was the fact that the biggest race so far in this 1000km Challenge, the London Marathon, was just three weeks away. With this in mind, I was keen to maintain a disciplined approach to these races. This year I've been doing a lot more running than my body is typically used to, running almost every day and sometimes twice a day. This has allowed my body to build up a certain level of tolerance to the workload that this past weekend had in store, although I was aware that I would have to be prepared to adapt my plan suddenly.
Despite this, I had no real strategy in place for the run, but when the race started I set off running at a 06:30 minute mile pace and I decided to go for another PB. The course was probably the most true to the letter 'out and back' route I will run this year, with running round the marshall at the 5km, but it made for a fast, flat run. By the time I got to the water station I was in desperate need of the refreshment and powered on, crossing the line just 12 seconds over 42 minutes. Still a long way off my sub 40 target, but I managed to knock over a minute and a half of my PB set just two weeks ago.
------------
Distance: 10.02 km | 6.23 miles
Time: 00:42:12
Official Time: 00:42:18
Average Pace: 03:44 min/km | 06:46 min/miPlaylist: Strapping Young Lad
Goodie Bag: Water Bottle, Bottle of Water and Freddo.
------------
View my run:
Following on from my run on Sunday and crossing the line just 12 seconds over the 42 minute mark I was desperate to have another go at finishing in under 42 minutes. Common sense told me that today's run should be about recovery, given the course and how hard I pushed myself the day before, and that it should be ran at a steady pace. Unfortunately my common sense was not talking to the rest of me that day.
I spent the majority of the first mile overtaking people as I had started quite far back in the pack which resulted in my first mile being completed in 6:36 minutes, a pace very similar to my run the day before. After the first mile my body then woke up to the fact that I had ran a hard, fast 10k less than 24 hours ago and the undulating, off-road course I was running on and my pace began to drop.
As my pace dropped I started to enjoy the race more and I ended up crossing the line just over 44 minutes. When I checked my watch I saw that it had measured 250 metres short of the 10km distance, so once I collected my goodie bag, I dropped it off with Jenny and my brother and then continued running the remaining 250 metres, much to their bemusement.
When I got home on Monday I realised that I had left my watch on which explains the strange end point on the map below. I had to go through and delete 50+ laps too and the elapsed time had to be edited but should be accurate.
------------
Distance: 10.00 km | 6.2 miles
Time: 00:44:06
Official Time: 00:43:15
Average Pace: 04:21 min/km | 07:09 min/mi
Playlist: Gama Bomb & Municipal Waste
Goodie Bag: Commemorative Mug and Banana.
------------
View my run:
No comments:
Post a Comment