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
