Training Log Archive: fletch

After a week of feeling a bit flat and unmotivated and very tired (I suspect too many late night TdF viewings...) I was at least heading into the third Harriers championship run with fresh legs. This week was all on bitumen and flatter than the last few, so I had high hopes of a decent time. Chris was also running for the first time in a few weeks, but he was getting over a cold and taking it easy, so it was always going to be me against the clock.
Things started to go wrong about 3 seconds before the start, when I bumped my watch and realised that I hadn't locked the bezel and was left with some weird things on the screen. That meant I was going to have to run to feel without the benefit of getting to check my pace and put the brakes on after a few hundred metres.
Sure enough, the first km was uphill - and my first km split was 3:32. Way too fast when targeting 37. Backed it off there, but felt like I was working hard for the next two km, but not running fast enough. In hindsight, it was just the nature of the course. It wa slightly uphill for the first half of the 5km loop, and slightly down for the second half, as the pace improved through km 4 and 5 and I hit halfway feeling a little more puffed than ideal, but reasonably happy with my split.
Then things went really wrong. The little kids course was an out and back, which meant I was heading towards the tail end of them as I started the second lap. There were a couple of adults walking with them, and I veered out towards the middle of the road to pass, but a small girl stepped out from behind on woman, unaware that I was there, freaked and went the same way as me when I tried to dodge. I collected her head on, knocked her flat on her back and fell on top of her. I helped her up and tried to comfort her while her mum ran up the road to grab her. Much apologising, then got going again, as having 3 adults sorting the girl out wasn't going to help.
Took a chunk out of my knee and my hand as the bitumen was quite rough and lost all rhythm and motivation, with that km and the one after blowing out over 4 min/km. Got it together a bit after that, but any chance of a decent run was long gone. Course ended up being marginally short, which makes the run look a little better than it was.

Not the plan for today, but at least I got out the door, before settling in for a night of TdF watching.