Geranium experiment

Saturday - Gelt Woods - 2 laps. Lap one very easy pace chatting to Plucky and Gill who I hadn't seen in a while. Lap 2 I thought I would blast off as hard as I could manage. I gave the others a head start as I knew I would catch them by the end of the lap. Darren also started with me but I was immediately aware of him being a few paces behind. I eased back a fraction in case he was able to get back on terms but by about 2 miles I was really going for it full on.

Halfway round the lap I caught up to Plucky who I understood to be taking it easy again. But he got right on my heels and stayed there for the remainder of the circuit. I did drop him by a few metres on one of the longer flat sections but he soon regained when we next went downhill. The end of the lap arrived after 30 minutes 15 seconds - my second fastest lap ever - beaten only by the time I 'raced' a lap with Plucky.

On Sunday I was well up for my first proper long run of this marathon campaign. 20 miles said the schedule so 20 miles it was to be. Well 19.5 actually, because that's how far 3 laps of the Talkin circuit happens to be. The weather was horrendous. Heavy rain and very strong winds. Lap times were clearly not going to be up to my usual standards. I set off pretty easy and only very gently ramped up the effort as the hours went by. Each of the laps was faster than the previous and my third was significantly faster. It was probably just outside 7 minute miling which is OK for my first long run on such a hilly route and in atrocious weather. My legs felt pretty rubbish during this run - clearly the 5 miles of effort round Gelt the day prior had had some lasting effect.

Monday I really enjoyed a very short, very easy run with Scamp (and Milly and Gareth).

Tuesday I was looking forward to a 10k race at Kendal. I felt pretty rubbish during the day and knew I would struggle to do my 6 miles sub 6 pace run if was just for training so the race would kind of give me that pace for free. Checking the website for the venue and start time I noticed the event was actually on Wednesday - Damn. I really couldn't be bothered to run hard so instead ran the 10 mile loop at a brisk pace.
I wasn't best pleased to see 33 minutes at halfway so upped the pace from 7 to 8 miles (ran in 12 minutes exactly) to record 64:30 for the 10.

Tonight (Wednesday) I jogged for an hour or so with Scamp.

Tomorrow the schedule says 5 miles of reps. Meeting Darren at 530pm. Probably do a couple of mile reps  steady then some 800s or 3minute reps.