Races and end of season review..

Well last week saw the end of my track season which was at the Masters Grand Prix meet 2, I’ll review that race and the Grimsby 10k first before reviewing my season..

Grimsby 10k…

This was the first 10k race I’d done i a year, preparations went well, and I was feeling in very good shape 😊, the final week before the 10k was however very stressful, which was work related, sadly things aren’t going as well at work 😞, and I did miss a couple of days of training, but I didn’t dwell on this fact and had faith in the training I’d done. Race day was upon me and I got there nice and early

Did my warm up rituals, jogged the first couple of kilometres, the weather was good, the course was lovely and flat, going through the motions of pre race, strides , stretching. Felt very relaxed at the start and I made a decision to go with the sub 40min pacer , so position myself closed to him at the start, horn went and we were off !! Through 1 mile, 2 miles and I felt fine, pace was quick but I was handling it ok, but temperature started to increase and I found myself dropping off the pacer, coming up to the 5k mark I had to make a decision to back off the pace so I didn’t completely blow up and ruin the hole race. It was getting hot and I was grateful of the sponge stations

Pace was consistent though, and was picking people off who were stopping or slowing down due to conditions, the final stretch (2miles) on a duel carriageway I found myself in no mans land which was mentally tough, but I dug in kept going to the finish

And came through with a seasons best of 40:57, really happy with that, felt like I’m getting into shape ready to tackle some PB’s, which I haven’t challenged for 4 years now..

Master Grand Prix 5000m

This was gonna be my final track race of the season, the 5000m was on the cards, and the weather conditions on the day wasn’t the best😫😱 the wind down the home straight was awful! But there was about 10 of us on the start line of the race , and the starter was ready, gun sounded and we were off, I got myself into position and slotted into 5th place, but after 1 lap the pace was to slow so I move up to 4th and pushed forward, this is position I maintained throughout the race, that wind really did play it’s part, you nearly had to brace for the wind each lap, but the back stretch wasn’t any better, no wind, very dry heat, really strange conditions to run in 😯! I was coming to the Bell and I was hearing someone behind me, coming round the first bend and a guy over took me and someone else was right behind me, i followed the guy who over took me and kicked with him , last 100m and he push one again, i followed but just couldn’t close that gap, he beat me by 1 sec ! But I did finish with another SB, and a 5th place, time was 19:59.

The day and event was excellent, very well organised and great showing of Masters Athletics!

Above is a pic with Tj Ossgai event organiser and double world master champion..

A season in review…

So that’s a wrap for this track year, this week has been purely relaxation, training wise that is. Week on week and month on month I’ve been steady increasing my mileage, carefully not to risk injury, so far so good, no injury’s to report 😊 I’ve reintroduced double run days into my training schedule, but I tend to do my second run of the day on the treadmill, just to save the pounding on my joints, seems to working and I’m getting the mileage in. I’m back up to 55miles a week again and feeling more healthy on it, less fatigued than the last time I tried this. The solid base is getting built and improvements are coming 😊👍🏻 back into training this week, easing myself back into things again 😉

I’m booked in for 2 more races Pinchbeck 10k , hopefully I’ll be able to tackle this pb at last. And Peterborough Half Marathon, that’s another pb I want to drop ! That sub 1:30 could be on the cards 👍🏻😊

A special thank you does go out to my coach Gary Warhurst, if it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would be doing this, he offers me support , training and race tactics and most of all he believes in me..

Here’s to the rest of the year, road and XC awaits 😊