Ok so I have decided to split this blog up, in order to best get through everything that I feel I need to cover this time out. I will also do a bit of a separate blog to cover my review of the year and to take a little look ahead towards 2018.
Firstly, I will begin with a brief summary of my last 4 weeks of training, leading up to my final race report of the year at Ribble Valley 10k.
December
We left off on the last blog with me building towards Telford 10k, which I intended to be my final race of 2017. I had been in good form and was confident of a pb being around the corner.
The first full week in December was also my final week of training in the build up for that particular race. My main sessions for the week comprised of 12 x 1 minute effort, off a 1 minute jog recovery on the Tuesday, and a 5k tempo taken steady at 5:20 pace on the Thursday.
Physically I knew I was ready and in prime condition to run well and continue my good form, unfortunately though a snowstorm on the Friday saw the race cancelled and my plans scuppered - or rather, altered...
Total mileage for the week: 65
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:22
Total mileage so far this month (December): 111
Total mileage for 2017: 3415.5
Average miles per day 2017: 9.93
The week following Telford had been pencilled in as a bit of a recovery week after what I had imagined would have been a hard race weekend. Although the race was cancelled, I decided to stick to the original plan, take a couple of days off and do some easy running and lower mileage. I wanted to stay fresh both physically and mentally and set myself a new goal.
I got in touch with the organisers of Ribble Valley 10k and managed to secure myself an elite entry number for their race on New Years Eve. This gave me a new focus and impetus for my training through to the end of the year.
On the Thursday I did 2 x 1.5 miles in 7:18 and 7:13 respectively - meaning an average pace for the session as a whole of around about 4:50 per mile.
Total mileage for the week: 54.5
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:23
Total mileage so far this month (December): 165.5
Total mileage for 2017: 3470
Average miles per day 2017: 9.89
This week saw a fresh approach to my training - with thanks to one of my training partners Joe Monk, who persuaded me to head to the track for the first time in almost 6 months. We did a session of 16 x 400m off a one minute recovery. Whenever I have an extended break from track training I always dread going back - I build it up in my head to be this horrible, painful thing that is going to hurt! The truth is, I loved every minute of the session, and it was great to get back to work on my top end sharpness. I managed to average 66 seconds per effort.
Then, the Thursday saw me repeat my 2 x 1.5 mile repetitions from the previous week. This time I recorded times of 7:10 and 7:07, for an average pace of 4:45 per mile for the session as a whole.
Total mileage for the week: 69.5
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:29
Total mileage so far this month (December): 235
Total mileage for 2017: 3539.5
Average miles per day 2017: 9.89
Race week was also Christmas week! This meant altering my usual build up, but also ensuring that I didn't go too daft and overboard on the festivities through the week! I took Christmas Day off and my only real session was on the Thursday when I did a 3 mile tempo at 5:04 pace with Ben Johnson.
I was all set for my final effort of the year...
Total mileage for the week: 56
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:15
Total mileage so far this month (December): 291
Total mileage for 2017: 3595.5
Average miles per day 2017: 9.85
Race Day
The race itself couldn't have gone much better. There was a nice sized pack of around 15 runners tightly packed throu the first couple of kilometres, and then as that group broke into two at about the two - three K mark, I took a split second gamble to go with the pace of the lead pack.
I knew that I was pretty much on my limit, and I was right at the back of the pack, but I knew that I had to go with the pace if I wanted to help my chances of running the sort of time that I was looking for. I drew confidence from my experience at Brampton a month earlier, where I had been in a similar situation early on before growing into the race and finishing strongly.
That front pack of 8 then began to stretch out and became a new front group of 4, with the other four of us falling a little bit further back and starting to get strung out somewhat by halfway.
Fortunately for me I was just about able to hang on to the back of Ben Fish through this section of the race and made sure that I stayed with him through 6k, then 7 and then 8. Gradually we picked off a couple of runners in front and were gaining pace and momentum all the time.
So much so in fact, that I recorded 4:44 for my sixth mile and managed to sneak in front of Ben as we approached the final corner and the last 400 metres or so of the race. I managed to maintain that lead all the way to the finish line to take 6th place (and 4th in the incorporated Northern Championships) and take a huge chunk of time off my pb and to go sub 31 for the first time. I ended the year with a new 10k pb of 30:25!
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