February 2012

[marathondan]

Week 7 of 18
Lunar phase: waxing gibbous, first quarter Monday

A good start to the month.

Wednesday - 4 miles intervals along the canal at lunchtime. I increased the distance by a mile and kept the intervals at 100 sec with 90 sec rest. I much prefer these timed sessions to the old fartlek - there's no question of just hanging on to the recovery for a few more paces; the time comes up and you just have to go. The temperature was on the way down and there was quite some wind chill. Impressively, there were patches of ice on the water in the more stagnant and shaded areas, even at midday. But I braved t-shirt and shorts with no gloves and hat. The first 10 minutes were less than comfortable, but I didn't really notice after that.

Friday - still not sure where this performance came from. 7 miles tempo run was the prescription. So I dropped Emma at preschool and then jogged up to the field. The overnight temperature had been around -4C but it was a bright and clear morning. Warmup layer shed, spare bottle stowed in hedgerow, and upbeat sounds plugged into ears, I kicked off hard.

My previous lap times for the tempo session around the green have been around 12 minutes - since I got my new watch I've only once dipped under that figure, equal to around 8:20 miling. So I was a bit surprised when the first lap split came up at 10:32, suspecting something wrong with the watch. But the next three came in at 10:40, 10:42 and 10:46.

Later number-crunching showed these to work out at around 7:20 to 7:30 miling, which is about as good as it gets for me, basically very decent 10K race pace. Well, it was certainly hard work, but as hard as I would run a 10K? I don't really know, I didn't intend to run that fast, so it's mystifing as to why it happened. Certainly the ground was much, much harder then the previous week, which would have helped a lot. And I felt pretty exhausted for the rest of the day, as I have done in the past... after a balls-out 10K race.

It'll be interesting to see which mojo turns up for the same session next week.

TdJ - impossible to choose between...

1. Led Zep - Communication Breakdown. I always hope for a corking track somewhere in the last lap, and this came up trumps. Nothing more to add.

2. The Trammps - Disco Inferno, crematorial elegy to the late great Brian Blackburn, inspiration behind last year's Brighton rock epic - friend, lover (no, not mine, despite the allegations - come to think of it, not my wife's, despite the more serious allegations - not as sinister as it sounds - I think that's enough subordinate clauses), father, godfather, rocker... suddenly I noticed the sun was out, the grass was in rude health for February, the sky was flawless, and I was taken back to Northumberland coastal dog walks and cosy pubs some 20 years ago.

Up above my head I hear music in the air
That makes me know there's a party somewhere

Sunday night calls for 14 miles. The snow is currently falling; I think the temperature will be around zero, so not too cold to cry off. Will I take to the field, or (as I had been considering anyway) go urban? A moonlit snowfield might be hard to resist... but the forecast is for fog.