Six days after the 20 mile race and I put myself on the line again with a 24 mile 'easy pace' run. As always the plan was to beat 7 minute miles, and hopefully run a negative split and be strong right to the end.
Plans to run 16 miles of the 24 with Wes Weston fell through when he got himself stuck in some quick setting cement. I didnt call round to see if he was OK but feel sure he will struggle free before London.
The first mile was bang on target at 6:56, the next, 6:55 and so on and so on with metronomic regularity to reach the turnaround point in an average of 6:53. Only a mile from home when I turned to run back out of the city with a nice tailwind which provided plenty of sub 6:45s. At the arc of the horseshoe of this circuit I had a stiff wind in my face again but with only 5 miles to complete I felt able to push on. This rewarded me with another 6:44 mile and I knew the negative split would happen.
In the final 3 miles there was a 7:00 recorded on a particularly long windy straight section, but the final mile, including a nice ramp down from an M6 bridge was again a 6:45.
The final average was 6:49.8 so i'll call it 6:50. The second half was about a minute faster than the first.
Steve, just believe in your ability when it comes to races!
ReplyDeleteYou have been running some great races, keep that in your mind!
[Trimpell-= I feel this is well below your ability, stop thinking of the distance and think of the moment, enjoy every second of it!
Race each mile, NOT the whole thing in one go!
Focus on London and what you what to achieve,
Believe it and achieve it,
You can run sub 2.45 no problem!