Conwy Half

After a disastrous 91:30 performance at the Freckleton Half in the summer I wasn't hoping for much at Conwy. I knew there was a big hill in the middle and I had only managed a few weeks of decent training since the marathon. So I decided to aim for a sub 90 and see what happened.

The first four miles are relatively flat and take you from Conwy to the Great Orme. These passed without incident at about 6:45 pace. The pace didn't feel trivial like it had at the Wilmslow Half but there was a slight headwind and a few little hills.

You then start to work your way around the Great Orme and things get lumpy.

Miles 5 and 6 weren't too bad as they also contained downhill sections and I managed to keep the pace around 7:00. However mile 7 was nearly all uphill and came out at 7:40. At one point you go round a bend and can see how much climbing you have to do over the next half mile and it is pretty intimidating but you just keep plodding along and it soon ends. I found a couple of runners who were going strongly at this point, gradually working their way through the field and I managed to stay with them.

Then the fun began. Mile 8 was very downhill and came out as a 6:15. Mile 9 however was consistently downhill and then flat and came out as a 6:02. My fastest mile ever in a race of any length. Wahey! At one point the lap pace on the Garmin was saying 5:50. I half wish I had pressed a bit more towards the end of the mile to get my first sub 6 mile on the road but I was being sensible.

I now knew that the fast miles had more than compensated for the slow miles and a good time could be on. I went through 10 miles in 67:10 so a final 5K in around 21:10 would get me a PB.

I thought things were falling apart in the 11th mile but it turned out to just be a hill! I managed to keep up the 6:45 pace for the next few miles and then speed up a bit in the last mile for a time of 88:17 and a 6 second PB.

Needless to say I was pretty chuffed to get a PB on a difficult course. The steady training through the summer seems to pay off and I am in good shape to start another marathon training plan.

The only downside is that the DOMS (muscle soreness) from zooming down that hill has been pretty awful and my running so far this week has been pretty unpleasant. Sprinting down hills is fun but not for your legs!

Sherdley Park Cross Country

Chester marathon is now distant history. I am recovered and back racing.

Four weeks after the marathon I tried my local parkrun. I have had lots of times around 20 minutes and one 19:20 earlier this year. It appeared that my legs were still in marathon mode as I did 20:05 but felt strong throughout.

Last weekend was the second cross country of the season. This time I started nearer the front so as not to get caught up in people traffic. The problem with this is that I got swept along at a crazy pace at the start (5:30!)

There I am on the right in the green vest going at that crazy pace!

The first two laps felt pretty good with an average pace of about 7 min/mile. However the fast start and the constant undulations took their toll and the final lap was a bit of a slog with the fifth mile being a 7:24! I dug in and sped up down the finish straight for a 7 minute last mile and fourth position out of my club. A decent performance overall but next time I will try to hold back a little at the start.

In preparation for the Conwy Half Marathon in just over a week I have been doing a lactate threshold tempo run each week for the last three weeks. The first one was pretty awful - I couldn't get below 6:50 pace. Last week was better with three miles at about 6:40. This week I used a well lit loop in an industrial estate to avoid traffic interruptions and managed three miles at 6:35 - my actual LT pace.

So the recovery is over and the legs are working. Let's see if I can get under 90 minutes again in Conwy.