Since the relay on Easter Sunday, I have ticked along nicely training wise. The content of training has been dependent on work commitments (a huge conveyancing and Court load) and racing so the consistency is found more in the numbers than the types of sessions. Since week beginning Monday 1st April, the weekly mileages have been 51, 54, 51, 56 and 52 with a good mix of sessions and runs. It's a case of making the most of the time available. For example, a run home from work (7.6 miles from Tesco car park in Burnside to my back gate in East Kilbride) has become more common, achievable by my Dad jumping the bus down, taking my work gear off me then driving my car home while I chase him on foot. Initially completing it in around 50 minutes, tonight, I broke 49 minutes. Racing the 21 bus from Burnside can be fun.
A 10 minute "out and back session" has also featured comprising a 10 minute effort on the road, 30 seconds recovery then turning round and another 10 minutes back the same way with a warm up to start and warm down to finish. It's a popular Cambuslang session but I've tried it on East Kilbride's undulating country roads. The first occasion I attempted it after my recent illness, I struggled to break 6 minute mile pace. Last week, in the company of clubmate, Alistair Campbell, I averaged approximately 5:10-5:15 per mile as did he more or less.
A mainstay which has returned though is the long Windfarm runs. A section of road on my usual route had been closed off, resulting in an unwanted diversion. I've now had a run at the Eaglesham Moor end of the Windfarm and two runs on my tried and trusted route, all on consecutive weeks. Little psychological boosts like that matter.
Amongst it all I've also raced, twice in the one afternoon. The Ayrshire Athletics Arena was slightly on the windy side for the first match in this year's Scottish Mens League on 20th April. In a moment of weakness, I decided a 3000m steeplechase and a 5000m was worth a shot (I'm the team manager so I've no excuse). This was my first attempt at steeplechase for 3 years so a personal best of 9:49.07 with some unsteady hurdling constituted success. Next up in the 5000m, I had a ding dong battle with Central pair Alistair Hay and Andrew Butchart, fresh from 800m and 1500m races respectively. Whether I had former two time Scottish Cross Country champion Hay worried at any time as I took the lead at various stages I'm not sure but I certainly had no answer to his final lap pace increase which took his team mate with him. Still, 15:14.82, 7 seconds adrift from Hay and less than a second behind Butchart and running the second half of the race quicker than the first went down as a satisfactory shift. With both races running Divisions 1 and 2 together, I had the consolation prize of winning the Division 2 contest in each.
So that's been my lot recently. No huge targets on the agenda. Simply racing when I want, training well and ticking along nicely.
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