Mad March 20 (2011)

Woke up this morning slightly disappointed that I wasn’t joining my club mates for a full blast half at Bath but I knew in my heart that I was doing the right thing by sticking to my Jack Daniel’s session within the local 20 mile race.

The plan was as follows,
5 miles steady (6-6:10m/m)
8 miles MP
1 mile HMP
5 miles MP
1 mile HMP

A little bit breezy in Christchurch this morning and a chill in the air but generally not bad conditions and the sun came out half way through the race which was nice

Set off at the scheduled steady pace and found myself running with a couple of friends, James and CRAB (from the sub 3 thread). A guy from Portsmouth Joggers drifted off into the distance going at what I thought was about 5:45 pace so I was hoping I would see him a bit later on in the race!

First set of MP miles went pretty well with the 8 miles averaging around 5:20m/m. The last mile of this set was a bit tougher with some wind/incline and that came in at 5:30 but I wasn’t too worried as I was preparing myself to try and up the pace for the first HMP mile. It was also around here that I managed to take the lead from the Portsmouth chap which gave me a nice buzz as I knew that I was on course for my 3rd win in a row at this event.
Managed a 5:10 for the first HMP mile which I was quite pleased with as the legs were already a bit tired but then slowed down a bit too much with the next set of MP miles with the first one coming in at 5:29 – whoops. Managed to get the pacing back in order though and averaged 5:20m/m again for the 2nd set of MP miles. Wasn’t too sure if I would have anything left for the last mile as it was getting pretty hard work by now but managed another 5:10 for the final mile which will do!

Total time 1:50:52 which is a good 4 min faster than Bramley 2 weeks ago with not that much more effort put in. It was also really satisfying to win again as I love this race, since ZoomTri have taken over the event it has gone from strength to strength with excellent organisation and marshaling (always really friendly!!).

A few easy days running now to get over this tough session but generally very pleased with the days work, my MP miles are getting a lot closer to what I need them to be in 6 weeks time so progressing well.