So yesterday was the first opportunity since starting training to meet up with another HavensRunner (Neil Dobson) and as he is a faster runner than me I was looking forward to doing a session at a slightly quicker pace. Before meeting up we had chatted about the pace I was looking to do and I’d asked to try run it at an 8:30 pace which should see me complete a sub 4 hour Mara.

He works about 2.5Miles from where I do so I opted to do a warmup on the run over to him and then follow it up with a faster run from Knightsbridge to Liv St where both of us would part, him back to Southend and me to Woodford.

From my watch it looks like the warmup was at the 830 pace I was after following that my intentions for a sub 830 were certainly achieved…

So pretty much straight away I realised this wasn’t going to be the run I’m used to, the weather was shocking the route was (in place) water logged so much so that my shoes are now out of service for today and also Neil is a lot quicker than me! Looking at the stats, we were a lot closer to 8min Miles than 830 which is incredible – that’s not to say I could maintain it as it was apparent in the final mile or so my speed was dropping but even during that mile it was an 8:20 which I cant grumble about.

My watch reported me as having covered 10M in 1h25 which includes waiting around at Knightsbridge to meet Neil. I was shattered as we got to the station but adrenaline was certainly up – ready for the next one now!
Mile Split
1 00:08:36
2 00:08:25
3 00:08:32
4 00:10:49
5 00:08:09
6 00:08:14
7 00:08:25
8 00:07:52
9 00:08:21
10 00:07:35

Slightly slower pace eve sesh with some colleagues today…

Saturday morning was the designated 4M slow warm-up jog in preparation for the Sunday run and following a rest day on Friday. Plotting a loop online during the week I took to the frosty streets. The route I chose was hilly to say the least, thinking back now I don’t remember more than 200m that was flat, however this did not come as a suprise as I had done stretches of the route before. Easy 4m under the recommended time, perfect!

Sunday was billed in the diary as the first ‘race’. Having not been able to find an organised run to enter at the required distance (10km) I realised I would have to do it alone. I was also very aware of how quickly I was supposed to do it and wasn’t overly confident of my own ability to meet the target of sub 47mins. During the last summer I ran the British 10k in 46mins so know I can do it, however it wasn’t to be the case on Sunday.
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