Its been kind of tough to get going again after all the marathon hype. I always thought regardless of how the marathon went I'd benefit from all the increased training in the early part of the year and storm on to new heights. So far, its more of a tale of lethargy than exhilaration. Most runs tend to be laboured affairs. The only exception is training sessions with the club where I'm feeling in pretty good shape. There has been signs of a resurgence in the past few days although not enough to push me on to a 10k PB in last night's Clive Cookson 10k. First signs of recovery came in Sunday’s 6.5 mile run where I started Ok but found a renewed spring in my step towards the latter stages. I followed this with a fast-ish session to St. Mary's Lighthouse averaging around 6:40 per mile for the 5 mile run. Not exceptionally fast but an increase in tempo compared to most of my efforts recently.
It all boded well for my return to racing on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I woke up with a headache and signs of a cold. My legs were also aching. Not sure whether this was down to Monday's session or part of the bug I seemed to have picked up. I felt pretty lethargic throughout the day and hopes of breaking my 38:25 PB seemed rather optimistic. It was a great May evening, although just a little too warm for running. I decided the best race plan was to listen to my body and not push too hard. Wary of my tendency to go off too fast I stayed behind my club colleague Jayne for the first kilometre (3:45) and then eased into my running. It was a 2-lap course of my old high-school cross country route. I held it together quite well on the first lap and hit the halfway point in 19:35.
The PB was obviously not going to happen but a decent time was still very much on the cards. I told myself the next 3k were going to make or break the race for me. This section included the most difficult parts of a pretty flat course, into the wind and a blazing sun. All of a sudden the runners around me seemed to have disappeared and I was going to have to do the hard work by myself. For a time I felt a little queasy but managed to hold it together. I managed to close the gap on the girl in front of me and gradually wound her in. The plan was to reel her in until I reached the easy section of the run (the last 2k being downhill, wind assisted). It served as a useful tactic to keep me going through the tough part of the race but as we entered the final 2k she surged away from me. Fortunately this wasn't due to me slowing down. In fact I ran these last 2 kilometres in 3:46 and 3:42. Although there was nobody in reach to chase down I was determined nobody would pass me either and tried to push on. As it turns out I was a full 16 seconds clear of the next runner, although I was unaware of this at the time. Just as I was thinking of easing in the finishing straight I saw my running coach and managed to inject another surge of pace. I wasn't going to give him the opportunity to criticise me for taking it easy, although he later berated me for not having a club vest! Came home 47th out of 288.
Next event is the Blaydon Race on 9th June. I have quite a challenging PB of 35:27 (6:11 min mile pace) but hopefully if the next couple of weeks training go well I'll be in a position to break it. It was quite hot last year and I ran 36:08 with far less training under my belt. Here's praying for a bit of rain. I'm getting tired of running in the blazing sunshine.
Km Splits from last night:
3.44
4.08
4.02
3.45
3.52
4.04
4.23
4.13
3.46
3.42
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