The Americans are coming and have got us to sign up for Glen Clova half marathon so its about my last chance this year to get my act together and run a better half. I ran 1.39 at Alloa which I was fairly pleased about because it was on the back of all long running and very little speed training. After the Fling, times took a nose-dive and I managed 1.44 three times in a row for the Heb races. Still in denial I thought each one was a fluke and I'd surely pick up soon.
Today I thought I'd confer with smartcoach off the American Runner's World site (much much better than the Brit site) to see what I could expect to do at Glen Clova based on my recent 5K times and it sarcastically told me that I'd be lucky to run 1.46 if I trained hard. FFS!!!! (As they say in HBT land.) This cannot go on. Time to do something... That something turned out to be a speed session up at the Meadows. After a bit of half marathon schedule perusing I settled on 10 X 3mins at 10K pace with 2 min recovery jogs inbetween. Peter has been idling at home this week having forgotten his work ethic at his last job, so he came along too, only complaining mildly, "50 minutes that's a long time, I wish I'd brought some music along".
The good thing about speed training is that it can be quite diverting and the dullish prospect of trotting round and round the Meadows was much improved by hellish efforts followed closely by grateful 2 minute recoveries, with a little student dodging thrown in and the ambience of paedophiles smoking on the benches next to the kiddies playpark and ambulances screaming down Melville Drive. I missed the beginning of one of my hard sessions because I saw a cyclist head straight across the road at Middle Meadow Walk while the lights were still green (for the road) and a motorbike was speeding towards him at 30 mph. They didn't collide but I had to swear a bit and then realised I'd missed the beeps.
So round and round we flew like Dill the Dog and Zebedee and I was very glad not to get lapped.
So, there's very little that beats the feeling of having done a good hard speed session and it going fairly well, followed by toast and tea and a spot of blogging.
This weekend's rather unusual half marathon training is doing the Two Breweries. It's a new one on me.
2 comments:
How's drinking beer at two breweries going to help your half marathon training?
peter will be drinking beer and i'll be driving - its not right.
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