Ran a lovely off road loop tonight climbing up to the Draughton windmills then dropping down to Bolton Bridge before a sunny, meandering route hugging the banks of the river Wharfe. Apart from swallowing a lungful of flies it was great to be out in the setting sun, climbing and descending these lovely, rugged Yorkshire hills then dropping into the cool and lush crevices lying between their ancient shoulders. Found myself being chased on the main descent by a very sweet flock of new lambs. I'm not sure I looked very ewe-like in my orange t-shirt but they seemed to want to follow their new Bo Peep. I left them looking crestfallen as I scrambled over the last stile. Think I must be getting back to normal as RHR was 36 bpm this morning but was then surprised to feel a bit tired on the climb tonight. This started me off fretting that I should be feeling much more bouncy this far into my ease off. I kept the run at what felt a very relaxed pace & ignored my Garmin screen again, just recording the run for uploading later. Anyway, M then checked on my time and reported that tonight's run was much faster than ever before. Though I've been keen to avoid measuring pacing and times this last week or so it was some comfort that I've not lost too much.
Feels like yonks ago that I last managed to do a full quality session apart from races of course. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get back to it from next week starting with mile efforts at the track. The last time I managed a full track session was January, just before my HM PB, the session ranged from 5.35-5.27 for 5x1 mile reps. Though I've had no injuries since I'm not confident I'll be back to that kind of form - the session will at least be a litmus test of whether I'm rested enough. The 5k time trail planned for early Saturday will be another chance to test if my hunger for hard running is back. After the time trial will be looking forward to spending the rest of Saturday morning chasing the Three Peaks race. I'm hoping for enough sunshine to make spectating comfortable without creating hardship for friends racing. Might even think about entering it myself one day. Now that would be a challenge.
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2 comments:
Hi Sarah, yes the Wakefield 10k course was better and not as many turns in it this year, so don't be too worried about comparing your times from last year. Also the conditions were near perfect this time(cool and sunny with no wind).
It sounds like your running form is starting to improve and your willing to take on some faster work - which should improve your race times.
Our times are similar, so the thoughts of a bear chasing me to the finish of the Rothwell 10k should help me to break 35 minutes again!
Thanks Antony, doubt I'll be chasing you at Rothwell the way you're running but thanks for the feedback. Will decide next steps after a quality session next Tuesday. Not sure I'm quite right yet but have everything crossed.
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