Week 10 has been what you could describe as a peak week. An easy start to the week with a 3.5 run on Wednesday, this turned out to be pretty quick and so I've reclassified it as a speed session.
Thursday's plan was 8 miles so I got to club early and did 1.5 miles before the 6.5 mile club session. Bearing in mind that I'd done Grindleford the week before I'd say I'd recovered pretty quickly and both midweek runs were pretty good.
Today was the Ashby 20, which was to be my longest ever road run. The weather yesterday was appalling, Sam's football match (25 minutes each way) seemed to last a good 4 hours in the wind and rain. The prospect of 20 miles in those conditions really didn't appeal. Every weather forecast I could find was promising cool, dry conditions with a gentle breeze-perfect running conditions. It was great to get up and find that the forecast seemed to be right, when I and the rest of the mighty team LERC arrived in Ashby it looked like a great running day. The first mile or so was lovely and I was getting nicely into my 10.00 mins per mile planned pace. I was running just behind two runners from another club when all of a sudden the man's legs buckled, he collapsed and started to shake or maybe fit. His poor clubmate was shouting "somebody, help me". I have no first aid knowledge at all but thought I should stop but as I turned round I could see that the marshall and another runner was already there so I carried on. At that point I was thinking "bloody hell, poor man. What the hell am I doing even attempting this?". It did unsettle me.
After another mile or so I heard the welcome sound of the travelling LERC supporters club complete with flags and cowbells, I belong to the most supportive running club in the world. It was about then that the drizzle started, I can deal with drizzle. Then the rain started, and the wind so that the rain was blowing directly into your face. In case that wasn't making it difficult enough we had some snow next, then finally a full on blizzard. I was actually glad when it went back to 'just' raining. Running wise it went fairly well, first mile 9.45, average pace 10.15 and last mile 9.58 with most miles in between close to my planned pace. Could I do another 6 miles after that? No way. Just 6 weeks until I have to though. Today's run took 3.27 so a 4.45 marathon might be possible, if I can just do those last 6 miles.
Next week is easy by comparison, 6 miles, 7 miles, 16 miles. Hopefully no snow, hail or locusts.
No comments:
Post a Comment