Alloa half marathon

It went really well.
I ran 84.17 which is my fastest for a long time.
As usual, I could tell within half a mile what kind of a day it was going to be and I felt OK.
The start was pretty packed and as it turned out it took me 18secs to cross the line.
The 1st mile was spent getting comfortable and passing people.
After that I fell into a comfortable lope and had no problems.
Normally the long straight between Tillicoultry and Menstrie is against the wind but it was behind and that helped. The mile markers were well short which is annoying but the reassuring chirrups of the garmins around me reassred me that my watch was right.
The hill between 10 and 11 came and went without any problems. I was keen not to eat at all and see if I could cope with the distance. The last 2 miles were hard but OK and I managed a 6.30 pace at the end which was OK as quite a bit is uphill.
The last mile was long of course but I saw the finishing line and crossed in 84,35 and the chip was 84.17.
What pleased me most was how strong I felt. I really had the feeling that with more distance training there was quite a bit more to come. However this could turn out to be my peak this season, you just never know.

Why am I doing this?

Tomorrow it is the Alloa half which I have entered. I have not trained for it but have done a fair bit which would be better for a 10K.
I have no real expectations for tomorrow which is always a good way to do a race. I don't know what sort of shape I am in but suspect I can do a decent 8-10 miles but might struggle after that.
Last year I did 86 but with the start of an achilles prob and the year before 84 which was a nice surprise. If I can run comfortably and enjoy it tomorrow that will do for me.
3 weeks ago I did our club 5k in just under 19mins but felt horrible the whole way round.

National Cross country champs

Perfect conditions and my 5th run at this race in 5 years.
Did the 12k course in 50.39 which is 49secs off my best but at last I have reversed a steady decline in times.
I found the ups tough for some reason. Every time I had to run uphill I felt I was grinding to a halt and people were overtaking me. Once recovered I would then retake the same people. I guess I am just lacking some stamina.
I was thinking of doing a 5 miler of 10K next weekend but have decided to do neither as am feeling pretty tired generally the last 10 days and would like to put in a decent performance at Gartmorn in 2 weeks

From the carribean to wintry strathearn

Bit of an update necessary as I haven't been idle.
Liz and I went on our 1st cruise in the carribean from jan 25th to Feb 6th. From a running point of view it was uneventful. I ran every day bar 1 but all on the treadmill except for  v hot 7miles on St Kitts. However most of what I did was good quality. Loved the cruise. It was totally relaxing.
3 days afte getting abck it was the Devils Burdens. I did the new leg3 and did OK. Was tired going up and down and came about 20th for my leg in 29.18 (approx 5K). Our team came 10th which was great and the women did equaly well in 5th. A good day.
The following Sunday I organised a 5K run around Lady Marys for the club. 21 seniors and 9 juniors did it. I did 19.02 but felt shattered and below par. I had started to feel tired the day before and have done so all week. Kiz has had full blown 'flu and I suspect that I have a mild dose having had the vaccine which she didn't.
Tomorrow the the national X country champs which I was hoping to do well in but now will just have to settle for whatever I get.

going well

Heading off on 1st ever cruise tomorrow (Caribbean) so running oportunities will be limited to treadmill and running round the ship!
It has been cold and snowy last 2 weeks or so but I have done some quality speedwork in the gym and outside.
I am not running far so it will be interesting to see if 5-6 mile runs are adequate training, especially when the Alloa half comes around. I did 27miles last week and 23 miles the week before.
Best session was on Tue when I did 6x 3mins on the treadmill doing between 16kph and 17.5kpm, v happy with that.
Will aim to get some sl longer runs on return but in the meantime ship ahoy!!

A decent start to 2013

It's always nice to get a good start to the year. It's no guarentee that it will be a good year but it helps.
Last week I ran 29 miles including 2 speed sessions both of which went well.
I did a recce of leg3 of the devils burdens relay which I have not run before. This was 8  miles there and back inc 2 x 250m ascents. I felt good most of the way and came back in 39mins which is decent.
The weather has largely dried up and running has been quite nice outside with temperatures of 10deg, amazing for early Jan.
I am trying not to worry about distance and concentrating on quality as much as possible.

2012 round up

2012 has been comfortably my worst year from a running point of view. An achilles problem in march followed by a calf strain in October meant that all running was either absent or difficult. I have felt either injured or in recovery or struggling for most of the year. My mileage of 891 is the lowest by a long way since I started running regularly in 2000.
I have done a few races. I did 1 half in March of 86 something and 2 10Ks the 2nd being a good run of 39.15 on a hilly course.
I dont know whether I have simply been unlucky or if this is a sign of things to come.
I will be more circumspect with training and hope a lower mileage helps ward off injuries.
Optimistically I have great plans for 2013.
I plan to do as much of the club champs as I can and aim to train for 10K for the 1st 4 months of the year. Then I will spend a month mountaineering  and then hopefully spend the summer training for the Dublin marathon at the end of October.
I hope 2013 is better but will inevitably take what comes my way and try and enjoy it.