It's amazing how motivated a date at The Mall can make you.
A good week of training to report on tired legs following last Sunday's 20k race.
Tuesday: 48 minutes steady walking off road. Approx 4.5 miles. Legs and body tired and calves/hamstrings sore.
Thursday: Treadmill session of 5 x 1km. To break down the boredom of intervals on the treadmill I set an easier pace for the the first 600m then stepped up the pace for the remaining 400m. Felt good today and recovered from the weekend. All pains in my legs have disappeared too. First interval a steady 6:15 getting down to 5:36 for the last two.
Saturday: Double fun at Parkrun. Turned up hungover for my hardest session of the week. Will I ever learn?? I had arranged to meet my 2 new best walking buddies Jo and Joan for 2 x 5km Parkruns. We set off at 8:20am for the first and steadier 5km. This was a pacing exercise to get Joan used to walking at sub 2hr pace for 20km in readiness for The Mall Olympic Event (if her entry is accepted as she has never done a 20km race therefore not achieved the qualifying time). We completed this 5km in 29:36. After a 10 minute recovery we were back on the line again this time with 382 other hopefuls. The first small lap was very congested so I was surprised to reach the first 5km in 5:24 (some days I have been 6:00). This spurred me on as it dawned on me that I must be having a good day and was feeling fit. 2km 10:30, 3km 15:45, 4km 21:15, 5km 26:33. The last 2km got tougher and I started to feel slightly nauseous from the lager but a brilliant result and over 40 second improve on my last time. Not quite a PB but only 13 seconds away. Finished 206th out of 385. Beat Jo today 27:30 and Joan got a walking PB 28:11. (BTW - Both are faster runners than me Jo 19:06 and Joan 19:46, me 20:43 for 5km).
Hoping to get up tomorrow for a jog/walk in Stanmer Park or on the Downs to keep the training going
Heading for The Mall (May)
