Following on from my completion of 1000 miles of running in 2021 and in an effort to motivate one of my friends I entered the St Annes 10 Miles Road Race - a road race I hear you say!! Well it's been a heck of a long time since I ran one of those, potentially the London Marathon 2008.
30th January, and after roping Sam in after my friend changed his mind, we rocked up to the start line at the YMCA, a crisp January morning for running ten miles. After registration and a coffee stop, we warmed up down the promenade and nervously discussed our race strategies and goal times. I planned to go out at eight minute mile pace and see how I felt at half way, if I could finish inside 90 mins, as close as possible to 80 mins I would be really chuffed, Sam was going to do something similar and follow my lead.
My strategy didn’t last long, got carried away with the starting rush and before I knew it, ticked off the first mile in just over 7 minutes, this felt okay and I kept one eye on the road and one eye on my heart rate all the way to Lytham, I turned at 36:06 feeling good, straight into the head wind! Passed Sam coming in the other direction looking good, then bumped into my friend Paul who had come out to cheer me on, this spurred me on, my heart rate was peaking by now and I was starting to fade, head down and just get there. Crossed the line in 1:13:14 I was made up, result! I was slowly making it back to being a runner.
W/c 19th September - Running 48 miles, Walking 13 miles
A good solid week, and my biggest this year I think. I’ve been concentrating on building volume with the 1000 mile challenge and completed this on 4th September, I had already decided in January I wanted to hit 1500 though. I’ve enjoyed early morning runs for the last two years, out around six and I can get some decent mileage in before breakfast and the family being awake, Chuck in the odd quick lunch time run and the mileage keeps ticking over. I’ve also been trying to mix things up with speed work and I’m starting to incorporate more of this into my runs, as well as strength and mobility work to encourage injury avoidance, gets tougher over 40 you know!! The morning sun rises have made it all worthwhile this week.
Sunday I had a great morning out with Sam from Brinscall, good steady pace up Great Hill before dropping down to the Belmont road. I was trying out some new shoes, Adidas Terrex Agravic TR, bargain buy from Sportshoes, some good traction running downhill across the rough ground and instantly comfortable. We pushed on through Tockholes plantation and up to the Royal before circling round and over by Darwen Tower with great autumnal views across Lancashire. A swing out across the moor and back via Lions Den to drop through the plantation again and onward to Roddlesworh. Definitely feeling the fatigue by now, especially the strides I’d added to my run on Saturday morning!
We finished through the nature reserve, a top 14 miles of running, company and chat, and making some plans. Plan for a lower volume this week and a recovery run at the most Monday.
Don't forget to sponsor me Karl Mayor is fundraising for EPIC KIDZ (justgiving.com) or link in the side bar
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