With the Brighton 10K just 2 days away, the inevitable doubts have been descending along with the grey clouds that are traditional at this event. We are in for an almighty maelstrom if the Met men are to be believed. The radio reports that the plucky population of Haywards Heath are being evacuated by boat at this very moment. One imagines a ruddy-faced Sir Bufton Tufton invoking the spirit of wartime Britain as he notionally directs operations from the saloon bar of the Dog and Duck.
My reservations haven’t concerned the weather, but my perceived lack of preparation this week. It feels as if it’s been a lazy few days, though my spreadsheet records that I’ve managed 146 sweaty minutes in two gym sessions this week, as well as a sprightly 4½ miles on Tuesday. So perhaps not so bad after all.
Despite that, I still felt obliged to pop out early this afternoon for 4 damp miles. Not a great run, slower than Tuesday, but in retrospect this might be a hangover from the sports massage I ‘treated myself’ to yesterday at the sadistic hands of Phil the sports therapist. The trouble is, he’s too good at it. It could be a much nicer sensation if he wasn’t quite so damn competent, though it wouldn’t do me any good either, I suspect.
We had a useful chat about my progress, and how to deal with the 6 weeks between the Brighton race and the Hyde Park 10K on new year’s day, where I fully intend to get a PB. I left with a prescription for more of the same, but extra intensity. Treadmill intervals need ramping up, Saturday parkruns to be maintained as tempo runs, and weekly long runs will be progressively stretched out to 13 miles or so by year end.
I’m happy with progress so far. Today I’m 20.4 pounds lighter than I was at the start of my campaign, 9 weeks ago, and as expected, that’s feeding into the running. I’ve no idea how the race on Sunday will go but I’ll be disappointed not to beat last year’s time of about 63 minutes. I imagine the regal Seafront Plodder will have a bit too much velocity and momentum once he cranks up his impressive girth and points it at the finish line, but barring accident or injury, I’m certain the difference between our times will be greatly reduced compared with the Crawley race.
