Festina lente

6.29 in 33.02 (5.15 pace)
10.06 in 47.13 (4.42 pace)
6.19 in 32.47 (5.18 pace)

Since I had my recovery run yesterday I decided to join some of the cub runners for their Sunday run - which I thought would be a nice slow jog. Ran up to Knocklyon to meet the others, and while waiting for people to arrive discovered they've been running this more like a 10k time trial. One of the faster guys turned up too, and any hopes of taking it easy disappeared - I'd really have to go out with him, to keep him company if nothing else.
Our route took us out through Ballycullen, and up the back way to Stocking Lane. Uphill and and down we were chugging along, about 4.20km pace, but had to slow down when we got back to the flat. My running companion was a sprinter in his youth, and has great strength and running form - but they tend to betray him now that he's come back to running, because he doesn't have the endurance to match, and after 5k at that pace his legs were getting very sore. So the second half we took a lot easier, more like 5 minute pace.
Waited around at the end for a few minutes for the others to arrive, but I was getting cold so took off for the jog home.

this month: 8/111.02
this year: 99/1063.83

5.4 in 29.40 (5.30 pace)

Feeling a bit low on energy this week, probably a combination of things - upping the distance last week, decorating instead of sitting at a desk, increase of chocolate in my diet - so I even reduced the length of my recovery run today. Next couple of days will be easy pace runs, shorter than 10k, and a recovery pace run on Saturday, maybe a few strides thrown in tomorrow and Saturday...

this month: 11/134.85
this year: 102/1087.7

8.73 in 47.08 (5.24 pace)

Easy run in this morning, not watching the pace at all.

Last night's training was fun - coaching the kids in the shot put. Which meant, in practice, one of the other coaches demonstrating the technique while I watched and learned, and shouted "Wait!" and "Collect!" a lot

this month: 13/153.71
this year: 104/1106.56

6.88 in 35.45 (5.12 pace)

Easy couple of miles, ending with 10x100(ish) strides.

this month: 14/160.59
this year: 105/1113.44

10k in 39.58?

Arrived at the race a little later than planned, almost one o'clock, so didn't have time for a warm-up run. Just over to see the women off, give RacoonQueen a wave, and get into the pen for the AAI start. I thought we'd have the road in front to warm-up in but no - everyone else has already done that :rolleyes: It was good to get in the club runners pen though, no worries about getting stuck behind a mass of walkers and slow runners.
Once the race started... well there are two versions - what I thought happened, and what the Garmin says happened. I thought that after a couple of k (and a shout at Tony Audenshaw) I settled into a steady cadence, longer strides on the downs, shorter on the ups, steady pace on the flat. What actually happened is that the first two k were fine - 3.53 and 3.52 - but the third k was terrible, down to 4.00. Luckily we hit the Kyber soon after, and I could put my master plan into action - peg it down the hills I think the temptation is usually to take the downhills as recovery, but I was determined to keep the effort levels constant, speeding up on the downhills and not pushing the uphills too much. So ks 4 and 5 were 3.56 and 3.50, which put me back on track. First 5k finished in 19.3x
I knew that gave me a chance for sub-40, so no excuse to ease off. k6 was up Military, but not too bad at 3.59. At the top, just a few metres in front of me two deer ran across the road, crashing into a runner, but everyone seemed to be okay to carry on. Through the s-bends, and I was doing much worse than I thought. I thought I was keeping a good pace through the bends and towards the glen, but actually I was dropping off again, k7 and 8 were 4.00 and 4.08. I had my eye on a clubmate in front through here - he's faster than me on the short stuff but I have the legs on him in a longer race and I was gaining fast. Through the glen in 4.11 (with a wave to the cheerleaders! where were the pompoms???) and a quick check of the watch at the 9k mark, just as I caught up with the clubmate. Average pace was showing as 3.59 and I knew that wouldn't be good enough, I was sure to have lost some distance over the race. Told the clubmate we needed a fast last k to get under 40, and starting winding it up. The last k is nice and flat, and pretty straight to the finish line, good for building up speed. Got a shout from meno near the end, and my name called out by the announcer, and managed a final sprint over the line. Enough to get under? Will have to wait until tomorrow:rolleyes: