I was a bit unsure of how exactly to approach the 10k race the other week, as it was just off the back of a serious effort at Brampton, and also of course I am wanting to keep myself in the best possible shape ahead of my next - and possibly final of the year - target race at Telford 10k this Sunday coming.
I began the week absolutely buzzing about how Brampton had gone, and on a high I began to debate the possibility of having a crack at the course record on my home club race - which has stood for quite a while at 30:56. It would have required me to run a pb to beat, but I was confident that should I really give it a go, I was in the right shape, form and confidence to do just that.
However, as the week went on I continued to umm and ahh over it, as to whether it would be too much to ask on the back of a very hard run one week earlier, and just two weeks out from Telford I was conscious of not wanting to jeapordise a better chance of going quicker on a course with a serious reputation of being extremely fast and with a packed entry list.
As the week went on, I learned that Joe Monk - likely to be the main competition to push myself against - wasn't in condition to race and so I would be all alone at the front end. It made my mind up for me that I would run fairly hard, but also relaxed and almost treat the race as a hard tempo run, rather than a flat out effort. My target was to run in and around 31:30-40 depending on the conditions on the day.
It turned out that the weather wasn't particularly favourable come the morning of the race, with heavy rain/hailstone and a stiff wind throughout the race. Nevertheless, I got off to a good start and soon opened up a good lead, I was running within myself for the first few miles, but feeling in fairly good nick and knowing all the while that there was a couple of gears I could move through. I passed the 4k mark averaging 5:07 minute mileing, and so knowing I was pretty much bang on for my target time.
I suppose it is a sign of my confidence and form in recent weeks that I seemed to gradually and naturally move through the gears from there on in, moving down to below the 5 minute mark for each of the final three miles, to finish in 31:17, to claim my third successive win on home soil for the Wesham 10k by a decent margin - a hat-trick that I could only have dreamt of when I first joined the club six years ago!
The fact that I was only some 20 seconds off the course record despite starting so comfortably was both pleasing - as it gave me even more confidence for what I will be able to hopefully do going full boar, but also a tad frustrating as if I had decided to really go for it, I do believe I could and perhaps should have gone for the record.
But the main aim has been Telford for quite a while, so as long as it all comes together there on the day, then it will all have been worth it.
My mileage for the week was down this week, as I took my first complete day off in 8 weeks on the back of Brampton!
Stats for the week:
Total mileage for the week: 58
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:26
Total mileage so far this month (November): 241.5
Total mileage for 2017: 3260.5
Average miles per day 2017: 9.84
Moving on from the Wesham 10k (and a hugely enjoyable Annual Dinner Dance and Presentation evening), and the week just gone saw another big event for me to look forward to. I headed down to the Forest of Dean - near Gloustershire - on Friday, to meet up as part of the New England athletics marathon performance programme for the weekend.
There was around 50 athletes and coaches present in total, and it was a jam packed opening weekend full of running, talks, interviews and a bit of downtime to get to know the rest of the team too.
The Friday drive down took quite a bit longer than anticipated due to an accident on the motorway and having set off at half 11, I eventually landed at the camp at just after half 4 in the afternoon. I shared the journey with Ben Johnson of Southport - and made the most of the opportunity to pick his brains about his recent England debut in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon last month!
Me and Ben went on our opening run of the weekend straight after the bag drop, but as darkness had fallen we were quite restricted to a fairly basic route that became a bit of a hill session, but blew away some of the tiredness from the drive down. We had tea and then an opening workshop introducing us all to the aims and ambitions of the project and getting to know each other.
Saturday was a full day - getting up for our first run of the day at 7am, and sitting down for our first workshop of the day at 9am. The final talk of the day finished at 9pm - so that gives you some idea how much we managed to cram in to the day! We ran three times in the day in total, clocking up 23 miles, with a quality tempo session of 6 x 2.2k being the main course for the day just before lunch. The reps were all fairly quick, but made much easier by the fact you was doing them as part of big packs of quality runners - it certainly makes a difference.
We heard interviews from GB international marathoner Tracey Barlow, her coach and the programme lead Nick Anderson, and also legendary coach Bud Buldaro, as well as discussing the physiology of the marathon and recovery methods, amongst other things.
Sunday saw us discuss the long run - its importance, the different types and methods in which you can use it when training for the marathon, as well as how best to structure your long runs in the 10-12 week block of training building up to a marathon. We then put some of what we spoke about into action with a group long run through the forest, before we returned for lunch and a final wrap up of the weekend.
The whole weekend was hugely enjoyable, informative and positive. It was fantastic to be a part of such a quality weekend of running and to become part of this movement striving to improve both the depth and quality of marathon running in England over the next few years. I would massively recommend this programme to anybody seriously looking to run 2:28 or below and wanting to push themselves to become the best that they can be - I believe I have learned a lot already and am looking forward to gaining even more knowledge about the sport at the next workshop in February.
Total mileage for the week: 90
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:32
Total mileage for the month of November: 227.5
Total mileage so far this month (December): 46
Total mileage for 2017: 3350.5
Average miles per day 2017: 9.97
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