Training Log Archive: murraystraining

JEC Sprint. Very wet. A good course, mostly well executed. A few hesitations and a lot of mincing in the rain.

Longer sprint course in down town St Andrews. First part pinched from the urban event there (quite tricky route choice). Second half Chambery-style alleyway hunting on the high street. Lessons? Need to have a plan for how to find each alleyway. Look to other side of street, look at the shape of the buildings. Counting openings should be a last resort.

C • Lessons? 1

Re-run of the Perth PWT course. Slightly quicker than in the race last year. Not bad for a training run the day after a track race.

Route choice geeking. I am the master of the alleyway. Or the long easy out and round route. One of them will be the champion. A spreadsheet will tell me all later.

C • alleyways 1

Another short one, this time on a little bit of the river.

Jogging around Victoria park.

Track PB & a win. Pretty pleased with this, even if it doesn't quite match the super fast time I ran on the roads before WOC last year. The race was part of the Glasgow Metric Milers campaign, an evening of paced races to help people towards PBs. The pacers for the 5000m were targetting 69 and 72 second laps. I wasn't feeling confident enough to go with the 69 second group but thought I needed to be a bit more adventurous than the 72s group so I settled into my own race. First km went by in 2:57 then I slowed a fraction to pass 3000m in 9:00 exactly. In most of the decent 5kms I've done the fourth km has been the slowest but tonight I was able to keep the tempo up and passed 4km in 12:00. Robert Russell had set out at a suicidal pace (was 100m ahead of me after a couple of km) but blew up and I could see I was catching him towards the end. My fastest ever last lap (66s - about the best I can managed in training too!) pulled me past him on the last bend to bring me home with a 2:54 last km. Textbook way to run a sub 15 I'd say!
My feeling is that there was more in the tank tonight. The 72 second laps, while not being easy, were far from stressful and I think that in a similar race to last year (where I finished 17th and was in a big pack all the way) a similar time would be possible.
And there was a definite breeze down the back straight.

With GG running 15:02 and Scott dropping a 14:37 in Sweden it was a great night for the mens sprint team. Tom Ryan won the B race in Glasgow with a sub-16 time and a very solid run while Tessa smashed the 18 minute barrier for a huge PB (17:59.54).

Another lap of Victoria park, my wd = Tessa's wu. Then a quick dash back to the station after her race.

Legs not fresh. Short jog round Harrison park.

Lap of the meadows.

5x1km off 1min recovery. 2:57, 53,54,57,56. Solo.
One of the benefits of the festival was the busker serenading me during my rests. The downside is all the dizzy tourists getting in the way.

Was going to do intervals but legs were pretty heavy - bumped to tomorrow.

Logn day at work, long run to clear the head afterwards. Got a bit tempo-ey towards the end.