Running24:36 [2] 4.76 km (5:10 / km) +70m4:48 / km
2 PM
Running22:49 4.34 km (5:16 / km) +35m5:03 / km ahr:114 max:143
Running33:08 10.41 km (3:11 / km) +112m3:01 / km ahr:172 max:183
Scottish XC Champion.
Got very swamped at the start and must have been in about 50th and stuck in the middle of the pack after 200m. It seemed to take quite a while before I managed to extract myself and I set about slowly working my way up to the leaders, trying not to panic. Made it to the leaders after about a mile and it was Lachlan, AnDoug and Logan taking it out. I stuck in, tried to relax and we started to pull away from the group after about a half a lap. I got a little gap on the steep slope at the start of the second lap and kept pressing the pace to see if I could make it stick. I slowly ground out an advantage over the next lap or so which was enough to take the win. Happy with that, fitness is good.
Running22:43 4.17 km (5:27 / km) +30m5:16 / km ahr:115 max:135
Forgot to charge my watch so back to the old school Casio. There was a couple doing Tai Chi in a quite corner. I almost felt bad for charging through and ruining their Zen every couple of minutes.
Feeling good and clipping along nicely with James, who smashed his PB in Armagh running 14.26 (after going through 3km in a PB of 8.31). Feeling easier to run fast on this road circuit, which has got to be a good thing.
Running1:33:22 21.65 km (4:19 / km) +125m4:12 / km ahr:127 max:153
Slightly further than intended as I got a bit lost but still feeling good.
Taking the hamstring niggle last week as a bit of a wake up call to not get too greedy. After last year and the injury hit start of winter I think I succummed to the thinking of 'if I did 10 hours of running a week last year, I'll be even better on 11 hours this year'. It wasn't a big increase and I did think I was being pretty sensible but I think I've been using the mileage/hours target more like an accelerator rather than a brake. Striving to acheive a weekly total rather than a sign of when to reign things in. I'm going to try to reframe things and try to get back into the groove I was in last year - sustainable balance of volume and intensity - keeping in mind the lessions learnt regarding realistic racing schedules..