Last summer I managed to set a course record at Catforth 5k, one of the more local courses to me on the road racing circuit. It is a fast, flat course and as it is a race series that is run through the summer season, it tends to lend itself to being held in favourable conditions too. With the right competition and level of runners it is, in my opinion, a possible PB course.
On the back of Chrisleton 5k last week, the weekend just gone provided me with the first opportunity of this season to try and defend this record, and indeed improve upon it too.
There was very good competition to pit myself against too, with the returning Dave Rigby, of Salford Harriers now back fit again, and Ben Johnson of Southport - on the back of an outstanding run at the London marathon last month. So I knew I would have to perform well if I was going to be able to compete.
In the early stages, after a little confusion on he start over the signal, I was content to settle in behind Ben and allow him to set the early pace. I had intended to stay tucked in for a while longer, but after half a mile or so and the first couple of corners I found myself getting itchy feet as the going was already starting to feel tough. I took the decision to try and push the pace on even more in order to try and stretch it out a little. It didn't work much and instead the three of us passed through the first mile marker in 4:40!
Obviously I didn't look at my watch, and if I had known how fast we were going I may have tried to reign it back a tad, as that pace was some ten seconds faster than my target pace to try and run sub 15. That early pace was just too fast to make a 4:50 average possible - if anything, by going off too quick, rather than getting ahead of the rate I had used up too much energy too soon.
The second mile at Catforth is the slowest, with a very gradual incline catching many unaware - being a regular I know what to expect there now and put a little bit extra in through that section, but I still found myself unable to pull away, and we were all still packed tight through the second mile.
Luckily, despite tiring and slowing through the final mile, I managed to open up a bit of a gap behind me and broke clear to run home in 1st place by 10 seconds in the end. Plus despite slowing I had still done enough to beat my previous year's best effort on the course, setting a new course record of 15:20. It is a good starting point for the series, and I am confident that with better pacing, there is still a fair bit of improvement I can make on that time in the coming months.
During the week, I enjoyed a tough track session on Tuesday, with 8 x 1000 off a 1 minute recovery with Helen's group. It was one of the longer track sessions I've done, and I really enjoyed it actually - it made a nice change after 4 or 5 weeks of 400 metre repeats on my own anyway!
On Thursday I did a 8 mile progression run with Rob, averaging out at 5:45 pace. Then on Sunday, I completed my week with a very leggy 15 miles at 6:45 pace the morning after the 5k race - it was hard going, but at least I got it done!
Catforth proved a successful night for the Danson family and Team Wesham, with the men winning the team prize, being followed up by the women also taking the team prize - with my mum forming part of the team and also bagging herself a pb in the process too! Well done mum 👏
Total mileage for the week: 69
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:29
Total mileage for the month so far (May): 264
Total mileage so far 2016: 1482
Average miles per day 2016: 9.88
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