I wasn't too sure what to expect, and was more concerned with just making sure it was a decent work out and getting a bit more pace work into the legs. This would effectively be one of my sessions for the week as an alternative to a track session on the Tuesday.
Knowing the Avenham route to be an undulating and far from fast course, I wasn't too bothered about putting down any sort of time - especially on the back of a lifetime best run on the Friday and a 16 mile long run on the Sunday. However, race organiser Shane Cliffe wasn't for taking any excuses and made sure I knew he wanted me to try for the course record!
Conditions were good, and I had some pacy company at the front end with Danny Collinge working hard and setting a very decent early pace - with the first mile being exactly 5:00. There is a fairly tough uphill section through the second mile and the pace slowed, but I found myself pulling away and a gap opening up behind. I didn't realise at the time, but Danny had been experiencing a few problems at this point, and I hope he is feeling better now - it just goes to show that no matter how fit you are, being healthy and well shouldn't be something we take for granted and I really hope it was just a one off problem for him.
I managed to hold off a bit of late pressure from Rob Affleck to ease away and just dip under 16 minutes to take the win and that course record, and it was pleasing to know I could still run okay on the back of racing just a couple of days earlier.
I doubled up on Monday, making the most of the day off work and ran in the evening with David Taylor at the club too. I am trying to creep my mileage up a bit and getting used to running on tired legs is something that me and Rob have discussed plenty in the past. It is important for me to get my body used to some higher volume and intensity efforts ahead of starting proper marathon training at the end of this month.
Molly had a good run too on a difficult course - and despite not enjoying the hills, she told me we were going to return to Lytham Hall for the Park run on Saturday, as she was hunting for another pb!
As I had done some pace work on Monday, I ran steady on Tuesday, just doing an hour after work and getting 9 more miles in. I ran easy on Wednesday too, clocking 8 miles at 6:40s, as I had a fairly short and sharp session planned for Thursday.
I have to admit prior to getting underway with the Thursday session on the docks, I really wasn't feeling pushing myself hard after a long day at work and two races in a week, especially with the wind blowing against us down the back straight meaning the second half of each rep would be a real slog! We did a repeat of our 2 x 1.5 mile session from a couple of weeks ago, and surprisingly once we got underway I actually ran much better than I had expected. I finished up with 7:23 and 7:23 once again - exactly the same as last time we did the same session, but in far less favourable conditions, which is a great sign.
On Friday, I topped up my mileage with another 8 miles at a nice gentle pace. We did indeed venture off to Lytham Hall for another park run on Saturday and Moll did get her pb she was after! I had a decent run out too and was happy with another little bit of pace work in the legs.
I wanted to go a little bit further with this week's long run, so added an extra little loop on the end of my usual route, in order to make it up to just under 18 miles. I ran nice and relaxed and felt really good to be running in the early morning sunshine. I try not to look on my watch on these long runs, instead just wanting to concentrate of building a rhythm and momentum through the run and gradually working through it. This week's turned out to be slightly quicker than I had anticipated, as I finished up with an average of 6:08s.
Total mileage for the week: 76
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:22
Total mileage so far this month (May): 76
Total mileage for 2017: 1256
Average miles per day 2017: 9.89
