Nah, then lad, that were better!

I could feel the effects of that harder than normal 8 mile trail run undertaken yesterday as I set out on the 2 mile warm up around the park before getting into today's track session.  No matter what your age,  if you've suffered a strain or a tear whilst doing a track session there is always that fear that if the legs are not rested enough or the warm up is not sufficient  then you might suffer again.  But one advantage of doing the track session alone is that the warm up does not have to be rushed.  The strides can be done, the stretching can be done. There's no one else to worry about; and is it turned out,  there was nothing to worry about. The session went well........for a change.  

6 x1k. So nearly 4 mile of effort with 90 second recovery.  If I could achieve sub 7 min. pace (10 mile pace) I would be pleased.  Last month I did this session it went very badly.  It was windy but I only averaged 4.39 with the last best rep. beiong 4.30 .  Today was a fine dry, calm, cool December morning. If this is global warming......give me more!  

Went back to wearing a lighter racing shoe today; giving them more support by transferring the wedges from my SOMNIO training shoes.  Seemed to have worked. Good acceleration through the reps.
    4.25.5       4.23.9       4.24.9       4.22.3       4.18.5       4.15.5      90 second  200 jog recovery.

So  a much better average   4.21..........6.56 mile pace.......69.20 for 10 mile..........better!

Nothing testing now for the next 3 days.   After today's session I'm thinking of running the monthly Alexandra Park 5k but treating it a little bit more seriously and less of a tempo run.  It should be then possible to do a
10k in the Lake District the following week which I've never done.

Whilst many traditional races have now been axed, particularly all those marathons that we were offered in the '80s, there are a lot of new races to be looked at.   I know one particular runner (not me!) who at the moment is at a cross roads in his running career which would appear to have become stale.  Introducing new training sessions and reconstructuring the year's racing programme so that it involves a bit more variety or is more challenging is something worth trying. It's certainly something I'll be doing in the New Year. 

And finally....there was another runner at the track today doing what looked like a hard session.  As I finished he was sat at the side of the track in tears, his head between his knees , obviously distressed.
  " What's the matter?", I asked
 " Another rubbish session.  I'm getting slower and slower; no matter what I do.  I'm going to end it all!"
 " What do you mean, stop running?"
 " No.......commit suicide!   I've no job, little money and I'm a crap runner!"
 "Don't be silly, how would you kill yourself, anyway?"
 " Neurofen!"
 " Neurofen,  but you'd need bucketsful!", I said.
 "Do you think? Oh, I couldn't afford to buy bucketsful............I've got altitude training booked for the end of the month!"