In my last blog I spoke of my concerns that I would have little chance of achieving my target of sub-1:20 after a week of niggles and a disappointing performance in a parkrun. Well, what a difference a week makes.
Firstly, I seem to have got on top of my niggles – a concerted effort to foam roller my tired legs regularly to loosen tight muscles, some knee strengthening exercises and the ditching of a past-their-best pair of training shoes seems to have done the trick.
Firstly, I seem to have got on top of my niggles – a concerted effort to foam roller my tired legs regularly to loosen tight muscles, some knee strengthening exercises and the ditching of a past-their-best pair of training shoes seems to have done the trick.
I also managed to train every day, except for Friday, and recovered well enough to put in some strong performances in training sessions. During one of these sessions, whilst training with my fellow Gateshead Harriers, one of the group was rather bizarrely targeted with an orange thrown from a passing car. I don’t know why some people see runners as fair game for this sort of thing, often just incoherent abuse shouted from a passing car. He chased after the car (an unplanned interval, you could say) but it got very lucky with traffic lights, otherwise it may have been minus a wing-mirror or two.
The wind was exceptionally strong on Thursday night, which made running along part of the route of the Great North Run (from Gateshead Stadium, along the Felling bypass and past the Little Chef) difficult. The hot weather over the past few days also brought some unpleasant running conditions. Over the remaining days in the run up to Sunday I will be frantically checking the forecast, hoping for only a light breeze and overcast skies! Over the past few years the GNR has always seemed to randomly have sunny weather, but I remember running one of my first wearing gloves – global warming in action?
After the parkrun last week I promised myself another crack at it, in order to hopefully get my confidence back up. How pleased I was that I did – I managed to knock roughly 20s from last week’s time and even managed a parkrun PB! It was even only 10s outside my best ever 5k time, which was run on a much more favourable course than the Sunderland parkrun. I now genuinely believe I have a chance of hitting my target and, if not, I should get very close.
Now is the start of my taper period so it was just an easy 8 miles in place of my long run on Sunday. For the week ahead I will stretch my legs doing something up-tempo on Tuesday, then an easy run Wednesday. I may venture out for a short run on Thursday, but then it will definitely be it until Sunday. The feeling of rested, loose legs will be an unusual feeling!
The optimism and happiness I would’ve been feeling from a successful training week is considerably tempered as I write, after learning of the shock passing of my wife’s step-father. A truly lovely bloke, who I was blessed to spend time with whilst on my recent holiday. Nigel Moore will be very sorely missed by so many and I will be dedicating my run on Sunday to his memory.