Vitality London 10,000

It's that time of the year again. Definitely my favourite race of the year so far and also somewhat of a bogey race in terms of trying to get a PB.

In previous years I've planned, not really trained fully, and failed (rightly so) to get a PB in London, or get near a sub 1 hour 10k which is something I have desperately craved.
Obviously I've not craved it quite enough as my training, if I start it, always seems to falter weeks before race day.

This year was slightly different as I started training late which meant I managed to get in a lot of training closer to race day before the usual pattern of getting caught up in life and putting training in the back of my mind.

A week before we set off on our holiday, I was in full training mode, hitting a 10k in training that led me to sign up for a 10k race in Blackpool the week after and I was so glad that I did. Getting under an hour, almost under 59 minutes (probably would have been 58 if not for traffic at the start) did wonders for my confidence leading up to London.

Training didn't really restart after the week away due to one reason or another (it was a tiring week, driving over 1000 miles and not really sleeping due to F and growth spurts!) but after a couple of hard but doable runs in the week leading up to London, I was still confident of under an hour.

Then the day arrived, no pre race nerves. This may be a turning point, or it could have been because I was too busy praying for rain because... heat, oh the heat and humidity.

Not just a Flash in the pan - Photo courtesy of Dana V-T

So I left my friends who I persuaded to join me, only to be put into different starting pens, and joined my wave.
The route was to be as good as always, a beautiful tour of London and some of it's finest attractions but on one of it's most humid of days. With heat unfortunately comes problems and I passed a few unlucky runners being tended to by our lovely NHS paramedics - I do hope the runners are okay and have made a full recovery.
Despite the heat, and being slowed down by a Police car crossing the track, I peeked at my watch to check my pace and I was hovering around 9:30/mile which was starting to feel hard in the energy sapping humidity.
Onwards I plodded, following an older gentlemen getting a lot of wonderful crowd support for him and the charity he was supporting (which now escapes me, an orange vest I think...Parkinsons?) along Birdcage Walk.

Counting down the metres (800m) but feeling my legs just not getting the energy (600m) they needed to pick up the pace. Looking out for our supporters, I dug deep (400m) to gradually find the next gear (200m) and as we hit the right turn onto Spur Road (100m), Buckingham Palace, in all it's glory, was completely ignored and instead I was focussed on some kind of an attempt at a sprint finish.
I heard someone shout my name from my right, spotted our supporters and gave them a wave as I hit the last few metres and crossed the finish.

Photo courtesy of Dana V-T

Over the line in 59:53 - under an hour! Just, yes, but it counts and considering the heat I am super happy.

Two 10ks, both under an hour, achievement for 2017 completed. Time to level up and aim for sub 59...

The 3 Amigos - Photo courtesy of Dana V-T

Training For Dayz

I've been getting back into the swing with running and training but I *think* that we may be there, FINALLY.

Since the last update there have been 6 training sessions which is around 3 a week and should be my average up until the late Bank Holiday in May for the London 10,000.

From the top:

My first run was a 1.7 mile tester, back from the car garage where Venkman was in having a service and MOT.
Average of 10:07/mile and didn't feel awful and was glad to do it all in one go. No issues, win.

A bit lax, but 10 days later I forced myself out for what would be the first of 3 runs on consecutive days. An easy 5k at 10:11/mile, couple of places where I decided to walk but nice to get a 5k into my legs and to remember that it's not as scary as I'd built up in my head after injury.
Total distance: 3.1 miles.

Next up, and the day after, I went for some more hill repeats - not a scary thing anymore! However, the hills weren't as challenging as they could have been so I'll have to rethink my route next time. Including the warmup and cool down jogs.
Total distance: 3.5 miles.

For the third day, threshold intervals were the order of the day; 15 minute warmup followed by running at threshold pace for 3 minutes, with 1:30 rest after each interval.
Total distance: 3.2 miles.

Then I missed my workouts later in the week due to going away for the bank holiday weekend, ran out of time - who knew there'd be so much to pack with a 5 month old?!
So I decided to make up for it on Monday with my long Sunday run, which according to my plan, was to be a 45 minute easy run.
My Garmin decided to pause itself for the first 3 minutes, but as it was a route that I've done before & know it's around 4.5 miles, I shrugged off the technical issue and got my head in the game.
Surprisingly it almost felt easy, an average pace of 9:55/mile isn't what I'd usually call an 'easy' pace. Maybe this is muscle memory kicking in?
Total distance: 4.5 miles.

Finally we're onto yesterday, more threshold intervals - 15 minute warmup followed by a 2x 6 minute intervals with 3 minutes rest after each. Legs felt a little tired after the long run but at the same time, it wasn't as hard as I'd expected. Pretty much hit the target of around 9:30/mile for the intervals and 10:30/mile for the recovery.
Total distance: 3.4 miles.

Couple of cross training/rest days until we kick back off on Friday with more intervals! Sub 1 hour 10k, I'm coming for you!