Getting Back To My Best

Weds 10th Aug, 8 mls moderate pace in 62'38 (7'50) same route as last night but did the outer circle instead of the grass lap. Felt easy and nice to run a bit faster, I rarely go faster than 8 min miling these days for some reason. never once in 2005/2006 did i run slower than 7'40 miling!

100% doing the Newark Half on Sunday now. Sub 1'25 is a must really if sub 3 is realistic. Sub 1'24 would be the main goal though. Reading was 5 months ago and i was hungover and had Barca only 2 weeks before it and i've improved a bit since then. Time will tell, easy stuff for the rest of this week.

Thurs 11th Aug, 7 mls easy in 60'59, same route as the last 2 nights. Legs a bit heavier than before.

Scraped a pass in my theory test today, 45 out of 75 for the hazard perception part with the pass at 44. Reminded me of my old days in trinity, do the least amount of study possible to just pass and no more

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

No more whining before Berlin now.

Maybe you shouldn't read this post so

Sun 14th Aug, Newark On Trent Half Marathon.

Headed up to Peterborough yesterday and stayed in a friend from the club's house who was also running. After the great run I had on Monday over 5k i set sub 1'24 as the goal. To be honest I thought i only had to show up to do it.

Arrived in Newark in Nottinghamshire and did about a mile warm up and a few strides, feeling ok. The gun went and I eased into 6'24 pace, 2nd mile was a bit faster but still ok. Next 2 or 3 mls it wasnt easy but still manageable. After 5mls (reached in 31'54) I felt super for a mile as the sun shone brightly. But around mile 6 it became very hard work and i began to flatten out. My clubmate passed me here and slipped away into the distance, i wasnt expecting to beat him but i thought i could give him a race at least. 7th mile the pace dropped to 6'36, not disastrous though i thought, i can still break 1'25 with 6'30's. But no deal, it wasnt happening today as i slowed to over 7 min miling and with it went the race.

From here it was essentially a rerun of Leeds as i plodded to 7'30's and worse and pretty much gave up. I would have stopped only the road to town was the race route. Jogged the last half mile and crossed the line shaking my head in 1'31'42 chip time.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106555069

So what does that mean for berlin, unter 3 stunden ist ein Traum i'd say. Since Dunshaughlin things just havent been going right for me at all. Long runs have either been cut short or a painful struggle. My race times have been excellent but maybe my training is not suited to races above 10k. Once mile 7 hit today it was game over.

I can blame the heat (it was quite warm and sunny, 22-23c maybe), i can say the 5k was still in my legs but it cant hide the elephant in the room. 3'10 would be soft but very doable in Berlin, 3'05 is there too. 3 hrs just seems a disaster waiting to happen. I need a winter to prepare properly for a marathon i think. There's less distractions, less visitors over and i travel home less as well as no heatwaves. My week at home is coming up in 2 weeks and i'd much rather chill there (with a 35-40 mile week) than flogging a dead horse like i had planned to.

All the same it was an enjoyable weekend and a nice race in a lovely town. Just a pity i missed my target by nearly 8 minutes

Weekly review, 6 runs and 46 mls. 5k pb was a huge lift and todays race was just awesome

Yearly Mileage, couldnt give a sh!t.

theboyblunder wrote: »

Hard luck brian. I would agree with the road runner, maybe the mental side needs a bit of work. If you are faster than me over 5K then on a day where conditions are ok 6:24-6:30 shouldnt be a problem up to 9-10 miles at least.

Also, FWIW, I dont see too many tempo miles in your log (or any that I can recall). Lots of speedwork and quite slow miles but no sustained stuff. Could be just what you need, getting used to being uncomfortable for extended periods. That and runs with PMP.

Dont give up - the speed is still there, just work on the stamina!

I've 2 LT runs done in the last month, the race series 5 miler and the one where the garmin died 2 weeks ago, the foot injury and the heat cost me another 2, but yeah its been short the last few months i know that. It was the thing i did consistently before Barca, which had me "cruising" for so long over there then the pb in Reading off the back of it.

It's hard to get away from the fact that i have become a 5k/10k runner since Barca without meaning to. I'll hold my hands up and say i got it wrong the last few months. I'll make a decision on Berlin 2 weeks out after i see how the next 4 weeks go but its shockingly close now.