A two PB weekend

Saturday 12th February

Garscube XC 6 mile race

Cross Country Championships Results - 12 Feb2011

With Debbie having a weekend training for Scotland duty in the Perth 100k race I was left to my own devices.

I decided to run an old favourite the week before the Nationals.  The Garscube XC Championships is a great warm up for the Nationals and I need some practise at this sort of distance as well.  Not having raced this distance in nearly a year I also had to work out my pacing before I blew up big time at Falkirk.

Before talking about the race I though I would show a picture of the race after the first mile.

Ben, me and Joe.  Garscube XC First Mile (picture courtesy of Alan Blair)

Yeah, I may have gone off a little too fast at the start.  To be honest this picture wasn't too bad.  A couple of hundred metres after this I was ahead of Ben and Joe.

So back to the start and I had a plan.  Stay at an HR of under 162 on the first lap then 166 on the second lap and then I can see how it goes on the third.  So I started behind a lot of people but without trying I was before long in a group of Ben, Joe and me with John Bell just behind me.  I have to say but it felt easy although I knew that this is normal in the first ten minutes of a race.  I tried to relax a bit more but felt myself being pulled along in the group.  Towards the end of the first lap though I started to realise that I couldn't sustain this pace and so dropped off the back.

I tried to relax but was wary that John Bell wasn't far behind me.  After the first lap I could hear the cheer as John went by so I knew he wasn't far behind but the early pace had tired me out and John was going strong and caught me on the second half of the lap.  But instead of going past he waited on me while shouting encouragement to me.  He looked very relaxed and strong.  He is certainly training well and looking good for Falkirk next week.

John pulled me around the rest of the lap but as we crossed into the last lap he stopped and said he had had enough.  I was puzzled as he was so strong and certainly could have got round in front of me without too much effort.

So back by myself again.  I could still see Joe not too far in front of me but there was no-one close behind me at all.  So I relaxed a bit more until I realised towards the end of the lap that I was onto beating my PB from last year.  So I sped up for the last half mile and finished 3rd in 37:19.

Apart from the first lap I was happy enough and taking 20 seconds off last years time too.  As a bonus I also won the handicap race by 1 second.  I do need to watch next week though because Falkirk is a lot less forgiving if I go out too fast on the first lap.

Sunday 13th February

18 mile Kilpatrick run

One of the things that I am trying this year is doing some of my runs a little faster than I did last year.  Its a dangerous thing to do as it could backfire on me and I could end up being injured or overtrained.  But at this stage of the year I am trying it now and then but I will monitor my recovery in case it starts to go tits up.  I am not totally abandoning what I learned last year though as I still stay within my recovery HR zones, all be it my new ones.

To keep me motivated Matt Wiliamson was joining me for this run.  A very fast road runner and hill runner.  He is running the Fling this year and if he gets it right then he will do very well.  So one to look out for.

I was worried that Matt would really put me through my paces on this run but he was gentle.  It was great training because at hard sections we took it easy but at easier sections we pushed the pace a bit more but not the effort.  Just like in an ultra race.  So great training.  It wasn't made any easier though by the fact that it was heavy rain throughout the run and the underfoot conditions were some of the wettest that I had ever seen on the Kilpatricks.  At times my feet were so cold that I couldn't feel them at all and this wasn't just for a couple of minutes but for tens of minutes.

By the end we were both soaked through but strong enough to log the last mile at 6:30 and the last half mile at under 6.  I am hoping to get out with Matt a few more times before the Fling.  He was good company and very strong.

18.48 miles in 2:45:36 @ 8:58 per mile

Next week I will be back in the Kilpatricks for my 20 miler with John Kynaston which I am really looking forward to and that will be the day after the National Cross Countries Race in Falkirk.