Long Sunday Run

The internet is a great thing. Via mapmyrun I managed to meet Paul this morning who has lived less than 100m from me since 2000 and been running the same trails I have been running. So plenty to chat about and when I came out onto the drive Kenny and Paul were there and ready to rock. Only no-show was Magnus - I'll rib him on Monday night.

Luminous yellow was the team colour today with all three of us opting for the bright option kit wise.

Decided against the paths early on and stuck to the route I'd done about three weeks ago with Dave. I'd had it in mind that Kenny had done the route too that day, but he ducked out at Childwickbury so had never made it to the lake with us. He was dropping back and as Paul and I chatted away the 8 minute miles kinnda turned into 7:30s. We kept glancing back and making sure Kenny was still behind us and I'd seen him as we went up the hill after the Ancient Brition to the town centre. Next thing I know we're half way around the Verulanium Lake and no sign of Kenny. Paul and I reckon he must be just out of sight and loop back along the lake (hence 13.2 rather then 13.1 miles) but no sign. He's gone. In the gents?

We head home feeling pretty guilty by the time we get back to Harpenden. I've left a little trail of gels as my gel belt elastic has gone. Text Ken when I get home and leave a message on his answer phone.

Finally hear the good news that he is alive and well.

As he was not actually with us three weeks ago he did not know how to get down to the lake from the town centre so he went all the way down hollywell hill (having spotted two blokes up ahead in fetching yellow, they turned out to be road workers!) and in via Westminster Lodge. Adding a good 1.5 to 2miles onto the route. He went around the lake came out the way we went in. Then back home the way we had come.

Here is the route (including the bit we did at the lake as a Kenny loop back).

Thursday Intervals

Thursday intervals. Two on the bounce this week. Bit of psychology going on with Steve at the start suggesting that I'd run well on Tuesday, but could I cope with Thursday too?

Having passed up the opportunity for an earlier whip around Westminster I set off, to bump into Mr Westlake on the way in from aforementioned loop. Steaming and sweating rivers he didn't look like it had been an easy run. Er, nope he'd done it in 28 minutes. Animal!

I got to the meeting place and there were plenty of semi elite and back markers to keep me company. Session today was 1km of 30 on/off strides followed by 8 sets of 2 minutes on and one to recover, with two minutes recover after the fourth set.

Held my own through reps one and two, but as we were turning at three and the gap was binging to appear between me and everyone else rather than keep jogging out for the rep three recovery I turned and jogged back. No-one caught me on rep four, but I could hear them at rep five coming for me and by six they were streaming through. Interesting complication was that by doing 3 out 5 back we were back too soon, so six, seven and eight all had "jog back" elements which resulted in me being over taken by the same people three times! Starting late reps amongst the elite was unusual and pretty impressive to see just how fast some of these guys can move.

Justin caught me on rep 8, by which point we'd gone past the normal finish - there were only 45s left on the rep and I managed to find something extra to drive though to the finish and overtake him back and recover some honour. I admitted to my switchback at rep 3.....

Felt like I'd really worked hard today and was going pretty fast for me. Encouraging. Oh yeah, Steve, I was ok today. Ha.

Tuesday Intervals

Tough session today. As Justin pointed out I blogged his lack of understanding a similar session on 28th October, but that was a 7 min cycle, today's was an 8 minute cycle.

We did four sets of (5 minutes on, 30sec recovery, 60secs hard, 90 recovery) total 8 minutes per set, two out and two back.

Just about held the first set with Justin and Karen, but by the second there was some distance forming and growing.

Thankfully Martin turned up and did the last 1.5 reps and started racing Steve - his geen shirt was not actually getting any further infront of me through reps 3 and 4.

Confirmed my place as the slowest rocket locket. Still, it was good to be out, weather was mild beats sitting in an office.

Kenny's hatricks of dumps

Frosty dark morning as we headed off into the frost gloom. Ken was worrying about the ice that wasn't there before we started, but little did he know that would be the least of his worries at mile five.

Shade over 8 minute miles out uphill and then up to just over 7s on the down bit of the Nicky line towards Rebourn. Lovely bright red sunrise behind the treeline was pretty special. Spotted a guy out in front and pick it up through 3 to 4 miles to catch him. Nicely done as a group.

Paths were frosty but clear, however Ken suddenly vanished at round mile five. I turned around to see him flapping in a ditch at the side of the field. He'd stepped on a stone that popped out of the ground in the frost and it had turned his ankle and over he went. He popped back up like Zebidee assuring us he was fine and had not had a drink since August 2008. One beer and he's anyone's I reckon. Dump number 1. 200 yards later and Ken declares he needs a system dump, too much vegetable stew the night before and he'd not managed to empty it all out before we set off. Dump number 2.

We hit the hill and mark out the reps - half mile up (and another half mile down), footpath sign after the ford and single tree after the kink at the top. Two minute recovery at the bottom is probably too much as hrt recovered way down to 110s.

First
Climb, 4:42, 140-160bpm
Desent, 3:28, 155-149bpm, 7.01min/miles

Second
Climb, 3:52, 120-160, 7.49min/miles
Descent, 3:20, 157-146, 6.41

Third
Climb, 4:04, 120-160, 8.13min/mile
No descent - run home from here.

To see the hill reps at around mile six check out the elevation profile here.



And the hatrick? Well, we dumped him on the home leg, although he tanked it back down the common to pull some of that back.

Great fun and learnt some more about how we're still not pushing hard enough on the down hills in terms of speed and heart rate. Recovery is getting faster and hoping the interval sessions will show some speed again soon.

Thursday Intervals with Rocket Lockets

First Rocket Lockets of the year.

Not moved this fast since November 2008. Much discussion of Surrey League among the elite so the decision was an "easy session"! 10 sets of 30s on 30s off strides out to the start and then 10x 1 minute on 30s recovery. On the 3rd rep Karen vanished and failed to appear after the recover so Justin and I returned to find her ok, but with pain in her little toe. Oddly it was ok on the fast and only hurt on the slow. I was fine and held the back marker group pace up until the 7th rep, and on the "away" all it took was one breath of icy air before I had to take the foot off the gas. Caught up through the 9th recovery but was struggling for those last three.

Here is the route.

Odd four miles

Went out expecting to do a hard threshold, but just could not get going.

By halfway was 18 mins so kicked hard and came back in 14, but a pathetic 32 for 4.2 miles. Ave pace 7.45 !!!!!! Ahhhhhhh.

I blame the circuits on Monday more than the run on Sunday.

Wee Half to kick 2009 off

Dave and Kenny came along for the first run of the year and we decided to keep mainly off the trails today and stick to the roads and lanes due to freezing conditions and darkness.

Used the first hill to aggressively get the heart rate way above normal training rate and recovered back to 80%, which worked well. First few miles were probably a bit punchy and resulted in dropping Kenny at the Childwickbury turn off as Dave and I pushed on for St. Albans.

Were rewarded with a sunning pink sunrise heading into St. Albans, an lovely completely iced over Verulam lake and great views of the Gorhambury estate and house. Come over one my favourite trails from Batchwood road to Childwickbury lane.

Cold, but enjoyable. No heart rate drift today and noticeable over recovery on the downhill sections. Must remember to push those through.

Managed to guess the distances perfectly, 13.1 miles in 1h 46m 08s. See route below.