Week 6 update

After my mid-week review of my aims in running I put in a good week.
Thursday morning before work, despite sleeping in, I was able to nip out
for 2.8 miles down the side of Hyde Park. As I knew I was running late I
pushed myself to run the whole way, but it wasn't too difficult as I found
a good stride and managed to do it in about 25 mins.

Saturday morning was the Serpentine's monthly handicap race. It was a grey
muggy day with some drizzle. A couple of the girls I ran the race with last
month were there and we started at about the same time. It was nice to have
people to pace myself with and it was our aim to do the full 4.3 mile race
without having to slow to a walk.

After a quarter of the way round I was struggling so I slowed and let them
pull away, I really didn't think I'd catch them up again. I managed to keep
going for the second quarter when I caught up with a girl who'd started
earlier than us. Now last month we stopped to walk at the halfway point to
catch our breath, so although I'd made it this far and was overtaking this
girl I knew if I didn't pace myself I wouldn't be able to make it all the
way round without walking. So I decided to fall in with her and keep it
nice and slow and steady.

This got me through the third quarter but it was a struggle. By the time we
got to the 3/4 mark we were starting to get overtaken by the main body of
runners making for the finish line. The girl I was running with had to slow
to a walk but I was determined to run the whole way round and strangely the
people overtaking me gave me extra energy to push on.

Then as I came up to the final 1/8th of the race I started to overtake a
couple people - this really gave me a buzz and I powered on. It was a
struggle not to go hell for leather too soon, but I held back knowing I
didn't want to burn out before the finish line. I overtook one of the girls
I started with - I really didn't think I'd catch her but I did. Then as we
came up to the finish line she came sneaking up behind me - I wasn't having
none of it! I was only planning on jogging across the finish line but this
sudden burst of competitiveness found me some extra energy and I sprinted
across the finish line, beating her by 2 seconds! I got quite a fun buzz
from it too! :)

My final time was 46mins and 31seconds - a personal best, shaving a couple
minutes off my time from last month.

This next week I have a further 3 races which will cover my training quite
nicely. On Tuesday it is my work's handicap race - a circuit of 3 miles.
That'll be a new experience for me, running at lunchtime, running with my
work's running club and running in Reading so it'll be interesting to see
how it goes! Hopefully it will go smoothly as I'm planning on making it a
regular occurance, especially when the winter draws in and running
before/after work stops being an option.

Then on Thursday evening I have the athletics league 3.5 mile race followed
by the summer league 5 mile race on Sunday. I'll give them my best shot,
try to do them without having to stop to walk and see how it goes! I might
go running with the club on Saturday morning, but I'll decide on that
closer to the time - I'll see how my body is doing as I don't want to
overdo it. So here's to a good week!