Bouncing back

Another week of training and I feel energised. After the months of long, hard marathon training I'm really getting in to my shorter training sessions. With a week until the Blaydon Race I'm feeling confident of at least threatening my personal best for the event. My current record is 35:27 set way back in June 2000. Last year, on a hot summer's evening I produced my next best performance with a 36:08. These times are my primary and secondary targets for this year's race. Challenging but not impossible, my speed and confidence seem to be returning at just the right time.

Training has gone well recently with a mixture of short interval sessions and steady paced 6-8 mile runs. This morning I ran one of my long-standing routes along to Tynemouth Priory (6.7 miles). Despite a couple of bottles of ale and half a bottle of red wine last night, I clocked a pretty reasonable time of 45:34. It was a great morning for a run along the coast, although perhaps just a little too warm for my body's liking. I often plod along during solo training sessions but I managed to keep the pace going and maintained an average of 6:46 per mile with a fastest mile of 6:34. Of course I'll have to pick up the pace significantly to hit my targets next Saturday (around 6:10 per mile) but I'm feeling good and ready for the challenge.