END OF 10 MILE RACE SEQUENCE?

Family matters meant that Pat and I were in Manchester on Saturday night, so I opted for a shot at recording a year's best 5K at ALEXANDRA PARK on the Sunday.  This meant missing the GUYS 10 near Preston,
breaking a sequence of having run at least one 10 mile road race each year since 1976! 102 in total.

A classic race distance, 10 milers are always competitive bringing together those for whom it's their longest racing event and longer distance specialists dropping down. I often refer to the highest quality 10 mile race I ever competed in ...the ROWNTREES 10 MILE in YORK in 1983 which saw 322 inside 60 minutes!  My 51.41 was only good enough for 21st place.

Going back, Saturday's easy 4 felt only fractionally better than Friday but with Sunday's 5K  at least run in dry, breezy conditions and I was determined to give it a go from the gun.  I say from the gun.  The event is so low key,  a young man gives out a warning about pot holes on the far side of the course and then just shouts "Go!" (95 took part this month)   Chasing a wee pre- teenager (doing a 3k)  helped on the first of the 3 laps, although it was difficult to avoid hitting him on the head with my driving elbow. Then I went shoulder to shoulder with young Peter Maw of Manchester Met.  who I had met at the September event when he was racing for the first time. As then, we battled on until 4K but I was then able to run my fastest K split and edged away for 20.35. So a season's best for me and a well deserved P.B. for Peter.  I'm sure he'll "have me" in the future at this or some other event in the Manchester area.

The race SPLITS were......4.04     4.13      4.10     4.06    4.02.  
My average for last Wednesday's 6 x 1K track session was 4.21.....lack of adrenalin!?
Just need to find someone of my standard who can train at 11.30 a.m. mid week.

We drove up to the Lake District after the race, conditions deteriorating as we went further North. Very heavy rain overnight meant the hilly approach to Troutbeck village, on Monday's easy 6, was akin to navigating a river bed but the valley road towards Troutbeck farm was surpringly dry, with low rain clouds clung to Lowther Brow and High Mere Greave in the distance. (see photo below) This is a lane leading to Troutbeck Park Farm only. So virtually traffic free; ideal for speed work. The bridge on the left marks  the 1K point  and a gate further on is exactly a mile. Perfect.

Back home and back to routine today, Tuesday, with the Strid 8 miler which was very slow.  The old legs really feeling the effects of 5K at 6.37 mile pace.  A pace I struggle to achieve for any distance on the track by myself.   Illustrating the value and benefit of these 5K Park races; whether we ease down for them or just  run then as tempo runs within a normal training week.

I tried to get an entry for the GREAT LANGDALE 10K on Saturday; failed, but did manage to squeeze into the Sunday version.  I would have definitely skipped the track session this week if I had made the Saturday race; not quite sure now it's Sunday...see how i feel tomorrow.