The last post I wrote had me complaining about having heavy legs following the 10k, since that point I did a fastish treadmill session in the gym on Thursday clocking up 6kms which was again felt heavy and on Saturday morning I went for my 3M ‘easy’ run around the block as a warmup. Fortunately the rest day on Friday seemed to go someway to help with the recovery of my legs and Saturdays run felt much better. However as a bonus I was booked into see Chris over at the sports clinic for a 20min session on my legs – perfect pre race massage!

The massage was excellent and left my legs feeling a lot better than earlier and with the added knowledge that I wasn’t showing any real signs of damage I left the clinic ready for Sundays run, although at that point I hadn’t decided whether to race or just take it as a training run, although Chris did say as I left – go and crack 1:45, i’m sure you can.

Sunday arrived and with all the negative press that Silverstone seems to receive I don’t think I was looking forward to it as much as I possibly should – reports of difficulties getting in and out of the course on top of a dull circuit filled me with a bit of dread on the 1 and a bit hour drive. Fortunately, as always, Laura offered to come along and do the driving as well as watch from the sidelines and take photos, this is always a blessing – to have company before and after an event is perfect as it stops me stressing and getting worked up, not what you need before a race!

We got to Silverstone at about 1015 ish, plenty early for the noon start. We pottered down to the start areas and had a look at the shops before I started the lengthy process of sorting out my kit. Gel belt, heart rate monitor, pre-race isotonic drink, toilet break, banana….this routine takes almost as long as running the race but I find it works so I may as well stick to it. At 11:15 over the tannoy we were ushered into the pens, so I left my hoody with Laura and headed in – bad move. It was actually pretty damn cold still and I realised at this point I would be hanging around for 45mins without a jumper – did they really need 45mins to enter pens? On top of this because I got cold my body decided it needed the loo but I decided to hold it, if I needed to go during the route I would grudgingly have to stop!

Bang on midday Martin Yelling started the race and we were off – as usual I set off faster than I had really intended on and found myself running with the sub 8min runners. I tried to take the pace down a bit but judging by my Garmin that didn’t really happen! I managed to maintain a sub 8min/mi for the whole course – averaging 07:43 min/mi and according to my chip time I came in at 1:41:52 a new PB knocking 6 1/2 mins off my previous PB of 3 weeks prior (Laura – you were right I did a 1:48) and amazingly about 20mins off my Half Mara time of last year. On top of that my 10k chip time was sub 45 mins @ 44:15 another PB for me!

Obviously as I hit PB’s the run was incredible for me – it was tough but it wasn’t a killer I’m not sure I had another half in my legs at that speed but that is to be expected really! Marathon training is going well this year All in all a great run, wide course with no bottlenecks which is perfect! Would I do it again? If i was chasing a PB again then possibly, if I was going for scenery then probably not!See 19Mile Splits

Chip Timer Splits
Split Time
5K 00:23:25
10K 00:44:15
15K 01:11:25
20K 01:35:07

place (total) 671
place (gender) 614
place (cat) 484
finish time 01:41:52
http://silverstone.r.mikatiming.de/2010/index.php?content=detail&type=&id=0000030F5ECC83000005416E&lang=EN&event=SVRM&ageclass=

The schedule had me down for a 9 miler today but again due to prior commitments I could only fit in a shorter hour long run of about 7miles-ish.

The run was really tough today, my legs felt really heavy and not in great form. The whole run dragged and as soon as I got out of the door I wanted to give up. Looking at the watch stats I hovered around an 8:45 pace which is surprisingly fast considering how I thought I was moving!

Hopefully in the next 24 hours my legs recover a bit and am looking forward to Saturdays Sports Massage with Chris to hopefully relieve some of the tension in my muscles!

HavensRunners got a mini plug on the marathontalk.com podcast this week, they are sending people that way for the London Marathon Route Map. If you haven’t listened to the podcast check it out I find it a good thing to use whilst on my longer slower runs and also if you haven’t seen the map check it out and send a link to your supporters to let them know when to expect you!

Till next time.

N

Having taken yesterday as a well earned rest day (I even skipped spinning!) today I was hoping to be back in full form and legs fully recovered.

Finding only time for a quick lunchtime treadmill session I queued up my ok go interval track and did 30mins covering over 6km. Slightly short on the recommended amount for today but I’m sure that’s not to much of an issue. The bigger problem I had today was a mental one. Once again my brain was questioning what I’m doing but that could just be because it was on a treadmill and following a busy running week last week!

One other thing which I have decided today after opening my gym bag, sadly one of my pairs of trainers will not be held onto for anecdotal purposes as they absolutely stink!!! I put that down to this season being a very wet one and having done a substantial number of puddle running, it’s a shame web scratch and sniff doesn’t exist – although I’d question anyone that actually scratched!!

9miles scheduled for the morning which I will hopefully do early on a local loop. Till then.

N