It was great to get out yesterday and run in the daylight in the country. My two main runs of the week were both urban runs on dark evenings. I rested on Monday following exertions at the PECO the day before. I’d arranged to meet up with fellow Hyde Park Harrier Andy for a six miler prior to run club on Tuesday evening. We reckoned that a steady twelve miles with four days rest would be good preparation for a fast half. We ran through the city centre out up Meanwood Road, left at Shaw Lane and then back into the city down Otley Road. Finished off with a bit of running round the Uni to take us up to six miles. When we lined up outside The Edge I was nicely warmed up and not too fatigued. We split into groups and we agreed a steady six miler with group leader Rick and the other group four runner. By the time I’d put my empty water bottle and gel wrapper in the bin, four had become twelve as we’d joined in with the group five boys and girl to make one joint group. They’d also agreed that we’d run the Kirkstall hills rather than the steady six miler. Kirkstall hills is a challenging run in that you run as fast as you can up each of seventeen streets off Kirkstall Road, with a slow jog back down each of them making your way back towards the city between streets. Not only that, it’s also a darn sight further to get to and from Kirkstall hills now we’ve changed running base. A quick review of my options revealed that I didn’t have any – group three had already set off and Mike our group leader was so enthusiastic. Eight and a half (tough) miles later and I was back at the Edge absolutely worn out.
By Thursday evening I felt I’d better do something just to get the legs moving again. I aimed for a six mile recovery run up the A660 towards Lawnswood roundabout and back. Despite the clear evening, the Garmin took an annoyingly long time to find a signal so I set off anyway. It was an interesting discovery (probably blindingly obvious to everyone else) to find that the darned thing records the time from when you press go and the distance from when it finds a signal. My aim to run out exactly three miles and then turn round instantly scuppered. I was also underdressed for a cold evening, particularly in the hat and gloves department. I ended up running a bit further than I’d intended and a bit faster too.
A gym session on Friday was more or less given over to a massage. It seems that when I overdo training the right calf tightens up, the knee aches and the hamstring swells. I can still run, but if I try and push the pace it feels like something is going to give. By Saturday my legs still felt shattered so I set out on a slow parkrun. We have it easy in the middle of the field; it was carnage towards the back as some sort of collision had several runners ahead of me stumbling and crashing to the ground. A trot round with Geoff’s friend gave me a good workout without putting the legs under any pressure.
By Sunday morning all thoughts of a PB on a fast, flat course were gone. I’d gone for a PB at the Brass Monkey the previous year and had run out of steam. Maybe one year I’ll train specifically for this race and give it my best shot. We arrived at the same time as several hundred other runners and it was chaos. The queuing system for number and chip was incomprehensible and the signage so small you had to barge to the front to find you were in the wrong queue. That said, it all seemed to get sorted out very quickly.
Despite a large number of Hyde Park Harriers, I lined up on my own and I set off with no real plan other than to get round as quickly as possible, but to back off if the leg started to give me any gyp. I caught up with Andy after about half a mile and as he was looking to run at 7:30 pace I decided to tag along with him. He was feeling no ill effects from Tuesday’s session, but was looking to improve on the 1:48 he’d run at his only previous half marathon.
We more or less kept up a consistent 7:30 pace for the first half and went through half way in forty nine minutes. We picked it up a little towards the end and Andy must have got sick of me chirruping in his lughole all the way round. I had enough left for a fast finish and a negative split. I have to say I really enjoyed the run, was relaxed all the way, wasn’t disassociating or counting down the miles like I do when I’m going for a time. I finished in 1:36:29.
Lots of clubmates and friends got PBs and there was a good buzz about the place. This was a satisfying training run for me, overall running comfortably at 10 seconds per mile faster than my intended marathon pace. It was way beyond me to run a PB, but a good step forward towards running a VLM PB.
Thanks to Rich Kennington for the photo
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