Monday, January 31, 2011

Race Week

It's now 6 days from my first race in a long time.  Feeling pretty fit, and injury free, but not particularly fast.  Did some 1,200 repeats at the track last week to try and trick myself that I was still quick!  Managed 4 of them in 4:30 average, but it was just an ugly, unpleasant workout.  Before the SF half last year where I ran a sloppy 1:28 I did some 1,200s and averaged 4:37, but a month before that had done some in 4:22, so I have no idea what this means.

Mileage has been OK for the last 2 months, I've averaged just over 50 miles/week.  Not great, but a lot more consistent than 2010.  I've done 5-10K tempos (6:18-6:30 pace) most weeks and something in the 15-20 mile range most weekends, plus lots of hills.

Ran 6 at 6:50 this weekend as part of a 10 miler with a friend who is going to aim for 1:30.  That felt very comfortable, so I'm confident that I can do somewhere under 1:30.  Just a question of how far under!  Sensible plan would be to aim for 1:27ish and see how it's going when I get to the coast at about mile 7.  If it's going well I can pick it up a little on the last 6 miles, if not I can just slog it home.

However, sub 1:25 is tempting as that is the time needed for seeded entry into Bay to Breakers.  Big problem with that is that I don't think I'm in shape to hit a sub 1:25 and will likely die on the great highway.

Anyway, once I am done with this I will be looking at the result and deciding on when to do a marathon.  If I have a good race I'll shoot for May, if it goes badly, I'll look for something a little later in the year.

2 comments:

Lloyd W. Taylor said...

Alen, I have been reading your posts over on the runners world forum. Would you say that you are 100% over your SH or do you still think of it when you run? Is it still always in the back of your mind? If that makes any sense.

Alan Fletcher said...

Hi Lloyd - it's completely gone. still have the scars but don't feel anything at all and don't think of it when i'm running etc. i'd consider it a 100% successful operation, and one that i should have done far sooner!