The first and last rocket

So the first bit was that I actually remembered to leave the office on time and was first rocket to the meeting place. Amusing to see some arrive at pace, having had to do my usual trick of race pace to get there on time.

Only around ten or so out today for a hot trip to the canal. Karen and Sarah were there and they dropped me on rep one of six. Recovery was one min. Two mins into rep one I could not hold the pace and was dropped like a stone. The elite vanished the mid group bunched and I was now in the slow group on my own. Decided to focus on form and take it easy, but with only 90 sec of rep two done I could hear the heavy footfalls and even heavier breathing of some mad guy on a seriously fast tempo creaming along behind me. There was no way anyone other than a rocket was going past me during the on phase of a reps session. I let him pull level and kicked hard pulling away with now a minute left on the rep. He responded and kicked again, but could not go past me until I collapsed in a heap after rep two. Saw him on his way back while doing rep three and he gave me a rye smile as neither of us were holding that crazy pace. Managed to make the third easy as a tactic to avoid the humiliation of being over taken by the pack on the return leg. The leader nearly got me at the last rep, but I had just enough in reserve to get to the end of the last three minutes uncaught.

Mentioned my injury and got some good advice from the top guys.

At first I was disappointed by my performance, but as I lolloped home holding the elite recovery pace and chatting I realised it was not all bad. I formulated the following excuses. Still injured. Was on earlies. Did circuits last night. Failed to fuel or hydrate properly.