Two races and just over 40 miles for the week.
Simon set the session for Tuesday night's club run, which involved running up and down lots of hills lots of times. Thankfully I had a 5k on Wednesday so didn't have to put too much effort in!
The 5k was the third of a series of 4 that I've been doing in Saltwell Park in Newcastle. (Lovely place for anyone who hasn't been). The first one was in November and this was only my second ever 5k. Its not a flat course by any means and the hills really got me. I was in shock when I finished and thought perhaps my running days were over. But, I managed a pb in 21.41 and was first lady so that gave me the incentive to do the next one.
The second was in December and I arrived late and forgot my garmin so felt completely out of control on the entire run. I had no idea what pace I was running at and was stunned to find I'd knocked 25 seconds off my previous time finishing in 21:16. Again first lady.
So this brings me to last week's run. I decided not to run with my garmin but did wear a stop watch (old habits die hard). I wasn't too bothered about a time and didn't want to kill myself knowing that I had a half marathon coming up on Sunday. But a must have a bit of Claire Bagness in me because I just couldn't help trying my best once I got going. Finish time: A 10 second pb 21:06. First lady again. The final one is in February.
I'm quite tempted to do a flat 5k sometime soon just to see what I can do there.
Onto Sunday. Brass Monkey HM in York. I had set a new half pb in September running 1:32.42 at the GNR but injury followed and I was just getting back into it when I ran my next one, Norwich in November, in 1:36.07. I wanted to try and get back down to my 1:32 at York but wasn't sure how it would go with the gale force winds.
Fortunately, I found it to be more of a cross wind and although I'm sure it did affect times slightly I don't think it hindered me too much. I decided to try to stick to as close to 7 m/m as a I could throughout. This was fine for the first 5 miles but then I dropped during mile 6 and 7, which were the most exposed. I then had to work hard for the next 4 miles to get close to where I wanted to be. I quick time check at mile 11/12 showed I was going to be happy with my time and I crossed the line is 1:33.43. So only a minute slower than my pb in those conditions shows that the work over the past couple of months is paying off.
My next half is the Meadows in Edinburgh in 6 weeks.
I few stats: I was 7 seconds away from 3rd oldish bird (F40) and 26th lady out of 599. I'm probably more pleased with my placing than my time.
Also well done to Sarah Robson who ran 1:54, Mark Robson who ran 2:04 and Andrew Aitchison who hobbled in with a sore foot in 2:22.
Now back to some basic training for a few weeks.
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