Yet, after years of hard work, here I am now, having just completed my tenth successive interclub that I have raced without defeat. The only blip on the record is that I had to miss the final race of last season due to my summer holiday, so the ten races aren't all consecutive. But still, it is a huge achievement for me, and I feel as though I am getting stronger with each race. I am working hard and am hoping to continue keeping the run going as long as possible, and looking to keep on improving as much as I can.
Thursday night provided me with the latest interclub fixture to get my teeth into, and with it being a 5 miler, as opposed to the others so far this season, which had both been 4 mile courses, it would put my endurance a bit more to the test, against Rob Affleck and Gary Pennington who both seem to be able to hold a pace on and on with ease.
Fortunately, it was a test that I passed with flying colours. Despite feeling extremely leggy and lacklustre in my warm ups, something seemed to click into place as soon as the starting orders were given. Without really putting any serious concious effort to pull away - I didn't feel as though the start was a particularly fast one - I quickly opened up a bit of space between myself and he rest of the field. Again, throughout the run I tried to hold a consistent pace, rather than putting any thought into upping it at any stage.
I ran home in first place, and was staggered (particularly considering how I had felt before the race) to find that I had ran some 30 seconds faster than the previous year on the same course - and had finished in a pb time for the distance, breaking 26 minutes for the first occassion with a time of 25:49. The best thing about the performance was the ease at which I felt during the run. I felt as though I had an extra gear that I could have gone into had I needed it, a feeling that gives a lot of confidence ahead of Freckleton Half next weekend.
Perhaps, after the heavy mileage winter, the recent period of reduced mileage may have allowed my body to recover and feel fresher on a race day. Having said that, my current mileage is still equal to my marathon training from last spring!
It has been a long, but very worthwhile journey from my first full season of interclub a 4 years ago, to where I am at now. I am proud of how far I have come so far, and am determined to keep improving!
I am fortunate to have banked a consistent block of training without injuries over the last few months, and feel that this is the most important aspect of my training that has led to the upturn in form I am now experiencing.
This week's training was once again pleasing for me. Monday provided me with a steady 9.5 miles at 6:45 pace. On Tuesday I headed to the track at Sports Arena, Cottam, but since there weren't many down there, I did a session of my own - putting together 5 x 5 miles, off two minutes recovery, at an average of 5:04 pace. Wednesday was an easy 5 at 6:55 pace, Thursday provided me with 12 miles in total, with Friday seeing the working week end with a 7 mile recovery run at 6:38 pace. Saturday was a day off, as I headed off to Parklife with Moll, before catching the tail end of the club day festivities and the football at Kirkham cricket club. I ended the week with a very enjoyable 17 mile long run with coach Affleck, with us starting gentle and building up the pace progressively throughout to finish up with an average pace of 6:22.
This week now is about ensuring I make it to the startline at Freckleton in the best possible shape ahead of the Half Marathon, and I have to admit this is the hard part for me now, as I always feel guilty when I taper back my training as it almost feels like cheating - I always feel as though I should be doing more!
Total mileage for the week: 61
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:29
Total mileage so far this month (June): 110
Total mileage so far 2016: 1610
Average miles per day 2016: 9.82
