MILES........BETTER!

 Last week, week 34 of the year(!) continued to follow a pretty clasic hard/easy pattern.  Immensely encouraged by that sub 60 minute time around the res.  I ran a steady 5 mile on the Thursday in anticipation of  the first track session to be executed since stopping the intake of the steroid inhaler.
 I was very keen to see if I could cope with a speed endurance session of 5 x mile; and , of course, how would times compare with the last time before cessation.
 Regretfully I used the Garmin rather than the stopwatch for this session and it was "bleeping" a mile a significant distance  before the measured mile on the track, so it threw timings out somewhat.  So it made a mockery of the comparison I had hoped for with the similar session 2 weeks ago.   I ran the whole mile in lane 1 so found the differential  between a GPS mile and a track mile  very puzzling.
 However, I'm pretty sure the first and last  mile were pretty acccurate and they showed good improvement, the last mile being 7.15.
The main feedback though was that the whole session felt much more comfortable.  Double bonus.
 So a hard but one from which I learnt a lot.   No inhaler.....no problem.
As  cool westerlies brought in heavy rain down Wharfedale on Saturday  I was pleased that all I had to do was a short 3 mile recovery run;   with a  rare visit to my club, Sale Harriers, with, hopefully some good company for a 10 mile run, on Sunday.

 RARE VISIT TO THE CLUB
 I parked up at 10.15 at Crossford Bridge in sale on Sunday morning in good time for a 10.30 start.  Dozens of runners turned up; but  the majority aged between 6 and 11 were not going to be joining me for a 10 miler.  We did muster a group of 4 eventually  and  it was good to have company for 8 of the 10 plus miles.
 Very interesting and perhaps encouraging to witness so many children starting their athletics careers, working on the same "cinder" track  as I had nearly 50 years ago.  Only I was 13 years old.
 Let's hope that many embrace the sport for years to come and many cam emerge through the difficult years between  18 and early '20s when it seems many hang up their running shoes.
  So that was last week.  A pretty balanced week with  a 6 x 400 grass track speed session and a speed endurance session on the tartan track of 5 x mile with a solid 10 mile to finish and sign off the week with 44 miles, maintaining the yearly average above 41.