HM Training – Week 8 of 9 (Borders Race)

I think I definitely put in some effort this morning because now I’m struggling to raise myself from my position of repose this afternoon.

Race five in the Borders League series, was in sunny Capenhurst, in Cheshire. When I searched for the village on Google maps, it put a red boundary line around what looks like a large factory complex with a few fields and houses tacked on to the bottom. It didn’t feel like that when we were running our race as, for the most part, we ventured along quiet country lanes, looking at posh houses and barn conversions. 

Evidently, we were being shepherded beyond the actual village’s tiny footprint to neighbouring Ledsham and Two Mills in order to get the distance in for our five-mile route. And it was quite the perfect day for running. Sunny with a slight chill if you’re standing still, hardly any wind to speak of, and a route that was very flat.

I haven’t been this fast for five miles in a while. I did manage a good time in February, on the flat Penrith Parkrun, but adding two more miles while maintaining that 9.11 minutes per mile was some effort. I say ‘maintaining’. What I actually did was get slower with each mile, but hey, when you only have five miles to do, it’s worth a punt on seeing how long you can hold on. 

I did have an aim to push myself today, which seems an odd thing to say I know. Surely you would push yourself on any race? It’s true that you do invariably go faster than on most of your training runs when you slap the word ‘race’ in the title and line up in your club vest alongside several hundred other hopefuls. 

What I mean is that: this time I refrained from going to Parkrun the day before to recover properly after Friday’s long run; this time I had a bit of breakfast early enough to fuel me, and not too late that it would floor my guts; this time I got to the venue in time to get a mile or so warm up run under my belt. I didn’t quite have enough time to do any strides or those skips and hops, but overall, I had my game face on, and those preparatory details meant that I was able to squeeze a bit extra out of myself today.

It was great to see a decent number of Pensbies out today. Even though one of our women texted me this morning as she was unwell, we managed to get over our minimum requirement for both men and women fairly easily, and that included several first-timers, which was brilliant. The photograph doesn’t include all the runners as we can never quite manage to gather everyone in one place at the same time. 

Both Louise and Linda were worried that they would be last. Interestingly Ian, who was near the back, never voiced that concern at all, so maybe it’s a woman thing. I told them that it didn’t matter where they came, it was just about getting as many Pensby Runners out as we could, giving it your all and eating cake.

I think I gave it my all today because I am almost ready for bed. 

Mon	Weights and then a nice run/walk session with the Tortoises in the evening
Tue	Grandchildren
Wed	Track session – first in a long while
Thu	Weights with a tiny bit of swimming tacked on
Fri	Long run – nine miles
Sat	Rest
Sun	Borders five-miler – definitely a tempo run.