Title shmitle

In a nod to Rick I'm not running anywhere today (Friday)

Mind you I have trained  a bit hard since last weekend and with a race tomorrow I thought it would be daft to do 'owt more than a jog with Scamp. We walked home through town and the park though, so no jog even.

On sunday I was full of good intentions to run for an hour in the low fells near Cockermouth immediately prior to photographing the English Schools Fell Championship for which I had been commissioned. Various things taking my time and attention meant this was more like a 10 minute run up a hill followed by a 4 minute run back down it for fear of being late for the races. Not to worry though - I had ran the day before and even after I finished this short one I was then back on the fell with my heavy bag and covered at least 2 more miles albeit walking.

Weather wise Monday was poor. Plenty of showers and damn cold too. It seemed to have improved when I left he house with Scamp for a jog in the evening. I planned a route to see us out for at least an hour. But after 40 minutes the rain came back - with a vengeance! My choice of clothing offered little protection and I was soaked through within seconds. I considered sheltering somewhere but then decided picking up the pace and getting home ASAP was the best option. So only about 50 minutes mostly easy.

Scamp

Plucky said he was up for a bit of a bash on Tuesdays for a few weeks to come so I went to his house after work and we ran a hilly 9.3 miles. Not having seen him for several weeks we had a good craic as we toured the countryside. This was unusual as Plucky usually says little when trying hard. I wasn't trying very hard either but we did seem to be flying along rather well.  The calculator afterwards said 6:15 pace which was simply remarkeable as it had never felt anything more than a brisk jog.

I think we must have been well rested for Tuesdays run because the next day I felt like the 6:08 pace I managed  for my "flat" 5 mile circuit was about as fast as I was comfortable with!

(Dont read the next sentence Rick) Next day I went to the track and completed 4 by 1600metres with the club.I hadnt done 'mile reps' for a few weeks but figured I should be able to run 5:30 pace so planned on 82 seconds per lap. Lap one was 78 seconds - and that wasn't by keeping up with any of the lads who I knew better than to try to - just  a bit of an enthusiastic start by me. Not surprisingly I slowed from that pace and recorded 5:26. For the next rep I stated I would be running 80secs/lap and I stuck to that exactly until 800m when I thereafter ran 81 and 82 to give me a 5:23 mile. For my third I lapped at 79s then struggled at the bell but still recorded my best for the night (and year) of 5:19. The final rep I wanted to run in 5:30 and ran very even laps to record 5:29. An excellent session, far and away my fastest average pace for several years. If I can repeat this over 5x 1 mile then the theory says I should be able to run 34 minute 10ks.