Bertie Bassets

Well, 'allsorts' has been going on this week. 

Tuesday night was the regular Petts Wood Runners group run night. The meeting time was a bit earlier than usual due to the club's AGM that evening.  The slate grey clouds meant that most people had come prepared with a rain jacket.  With today's trend of high vis in a multitude of fluorescent colours, anybody travelling in an aircraft looking down might have thought a large bag of Skittles has been spilt.   

I joined my regular group, group 4. The rough plan was 6 miles at around a 9.5m/mile pace, although we ended up doing 6.4miles at an average of a 9m/mile.  One part of the run included a long slow drag up a steady incline.  This is where everybody pushed it at their own pace attacking the hill and then regrouping at the top.  As we regrouped and took a one minute breather, cascades of steam rose from the assembled group like a herd of wildebeest on the Savannah.  In fact I am sure I saw a white haired bloke crawling around in the undergrowth, whispering quietly into a camera?  An enjoyable run and the rain jackets were needed!

Post run, we then assembled in a local church hall for the AGM.  There was a nice little surprise in store for the attendees, but I can't reveal what it was just yet.  But all will be revealed in a week or so.  Watch this space!  A well run (pardon the pun) and efficient meeting ensured that we were all able to move to the refreshment station before 10pm.  ALE stands for After-run Liquid Energiser doesn't it?

Thursday night was the beginning of an 8 week track session for interval/speed work to help people improve their 5/10k times.  The closest I had been to a race track since school was watching Brighton v Millwall, when Brighton were playing at the Withdean Stadium.  20+ people turned up for the session. After a warm up, the format was 2 x 3 x 800m intervals, with a 400m jog between each rep and a 400m walk between the sets.  I was pretty consistent with my 800m times of 3:25, 3:24, 3:23, 3:27, 3:27 and a final flourish of 3:14.  I still have a bit to work to do to get near the world record of 1:41, but I am more than happy with my average pace being sub 7 m/mile.  We also did an agility test, and despite me thinking I was twinkle toes, my time graded me as poor.  But let's be honest, Hippos are not known for their agility!

The other major occurrence this week is that I have registered for a couple of events.  Firstly the New Forest Half Marathon in September, “That’s not major” I hear you cry. But more importantly I have identified my target event for my next attempt at a sub-4 marathon.  I now have a confirmed entry in the Valencia Marathon in November this year! which is nice.

Keep on Jogging 

TJH