A Moyleman For All Seasons

[OutAlongTheRiver]

And so, Moyleman 2019 comes into focus ... 

Paula and I will be reprising our relay roles from last year, with me again taking on the first leg and she the second. We toyed with switching round, but I quite fancy a crack at improving my 2018 time and she really enjoys the second leg. 

Using the Asics plan which would be a 1:50 on the flat, so I'd be delighted to get close to 2 hours for the MM half. Progress continues good - with week day speed and tempo sessions in Regents Park (8km each with combo of faster 750m and 1.5km sections) now a regular thing. Having found a non-car-clogged 1.5km route to get to and from the park is the real difference.

Speed sessions really do make a difference, since Saturday saw a post-Almeria group of us (all sporting our bright Spanish 2019 race tops) heading to try new East Brighton ParkRun. A curious little run with 3 loops of a park/football pitch - but cleverly using a series of grass terraces to demarcate each loop and to shuttle up and down the edge of the football pitch.  This means you see and pass the whole field - which makes for a friendly run.  Especially positive was presence of CharlieCat5 with Miriam doing just her second parkrun in her best ever pace for an outing.    

With the speedy training in my legs, I went out too quickly - finding myself in a top 5 place in the first km - slipping back as folks passed me to finish 10th. But I had comfortably cracked 24, and coming in at 23:21 I'd done my second best parkrun PB ever (and only once faster, which was with pacer encouraging me every step of the way). 

We then whizzed up to Sheffield for my sister's birthday for the weekend - and Sunday I looped up a quick 12km through the beautiful porter valley - and then back down the long 5km hill which will be going up on the Sheffield half in April ... it looked as ever long and tough. I missed the Twittens though - so looking forward to resuming that Sunday rite of passage this week.

So another good week on the training log ... I may try part of a reverse second half MM to cover 17km this Sunday.

Pip pip!