Percy Pud
So, I may have mentioned to a few of you that all this distressing non-drinking of alcohol was something to do with the Percy Pud 10k on Sunday... in which I had hoped to better my 2007 PB of 38 minutes 20...
Well, excuses first ;-)
A few weeks ago, after getting on a bit of a roll and doing three training runs in as many days, I developed a dull muscle ache and a fair-sized swelling around my lower shin/ upper ankle. My suspicions were confirmed by talking to a couple of people, one being a doctor(!), and it was looking more and more like a shin splint. This is a partial detachment of a small piece of the shinbone where the tendons attach, which sounds worse than it is and generally heals up just fine with rest and time. Unfortunately what this meant was that I had to knock my training on the head with 3 weeks to go...
So, excepting one toe-in-the-water training run after two weeks' rest, and a gentle run with the club on Thursday, that was it. So when the day dawned I was looking more at getting under 40:00 than doing anything heroic.
I was also looking to my new-ish GPS watch/HR monitor to keep me on the straight and narrow, and decided to embrace the technology on offer by setting up the 'Alert' functions, firstly to warn me if I ran faster than 3:40/km and nag me if I ran slower than 4:00/km, secondly to bully me into keeping my heart rate above 150.
What I didn't realise was that (a) this was a very narrow window to set the pace guide to and (b) my heart is a lazy bastard and won't go much above 160 even when I feel like I'm about to die. And so it was that I ran for a tad over 6 miles to a musical accompaniment akin to one of Kraftwerk's really early band practices, and ended up just running how the hell I felt like anyway. So, sorry to the 50-100 or so other runners in my immediate vicinity during the course of the race. Next time I'll get it to play 'Voodoo People'.
Anyway, the watch was good for one thing. Yup, telling the time, or rather, ensuring that I stayed on course for my 40-minute target throughout. Having crossed the 8k mark in 31:28 (by which time the winner had crossed the line!) I figured I had done enough and that I needn't kill myself on the last, uphill, 2 kilometres.
So I crossed the line in 39:11 according to the Percy Pud site (tbc), or 39:24 by my watch, which I only succeeded in stopping after collapsing against a convenient stone wall.
It was really hard work and I can't believe I ran it nearly a minute faster two years ago. Still, on the plus side, that's the fastest I've run since Dec 2007, and by far the fastest this year. It also means that 2007 was not a fluke and that under 40:00 is where I should be - which means no slacking off next time ;-)
Well, excuses first ;-)
A few weeks ago, after getting on a bit of a roll and doing three training runs in as many days, I developed a dull muscle ache and a fair-sized swelling around my lower shin/ upper ankle. My suspicions were confirmed by talking to a couple of people, one being a doctor(!), and it was looking more and more like a shin splint. This is a partial detachment of a small piece of the shinbone where the tendons attach, which sounds worse than it is and generally heals up just fine with rest and time. Unfortunately what this meant was that I had to knock my training on the head with 3 weeks to go...
So, excepting one toe-in-the-water training run after two weeks' rest, and a gentle run with the club on Thursday, that was it. So when the day dawned I was looking more at getting under 40:00 than doing anything heroic.
I was also looking to my new-ish GPS watch/HR monitor to keep me on the straight and narrow, and decided to embrace the technology on offer by setting up the 'Alert' functions, firstly to warn me if I ran faster than 3:40/km and nag me if I ran slower than 4:00/km, secondly to bully me into keeping my heart rate above 150.
What I didn't realise was that (a) this was a very narrow window to set the pace guide to and (b) my heart is a lazy bastard and won't go much above 160 even when I feel like I'm about to die. And so it was that I ran for a tad over 6 miles to a musical accompaniment akin to one of Kraftwerk's really early band practices, and ended up just running how the hell I felt like anyway. So, sorry to the 50-100 or so other runners in my immediate vicinity during the course of the race. Next time I'll get it to play 'Voodoo People'.
Anyway, the watch was good for one thing. Yup, telling the time, or rather, ensuring that I stayed on course for my 40-minute target throughout. Having crossed the 8k mark in 31:28 (by which time the winner had crossed the line!) I figured I had done enough and that I needn't kill myself on the last, uphill, 2 kilometres.
So I crossed the line in 39:11 according to the Percy Pud site (tbc), or 39:24 by my watch, which I only succeeded in stopping after collapsing against a convenient stone wall.
It was really hard work and I can't believe I ran it nearly a minute faster two years ago. Still, on the plus side, that's the fastest I've run since Dec 2007, and by far the fastest this year. It also means that 2007 was not a fluke and that under 40:00 is where I should be - which means no slacking off next time ;-)