84 Days To Go - Reedham 10

Date & Time : 29/01/12 11:00
Distance : 10 miles - Long Run
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 115 miles
Route & Stats : Reedham 10m

Decided to focus quality and not quantity this week.  So having completed a couple of round trips to and from work I also got in a couple of high resistance sessions on the cross trainer, as well as 3 miles of hill efforts - that last one I was particularly pleased with as I got delayed at work and didn't get home until nearly 8pm, but forced myself out just before 9pm to get that hill session done.  Work and family commitments meant I couldn't train either Friday or Saturday, which was no bad thing as I had always planned to do the Reedham 10m on Sunday and wanted to give it a go to try and beat my previous best time of 84 mins.

So to Reedham, on a very cold frosty morning.  Was pleased to see several familar faces there, including several Virgin Money colleagues.  The main topic of conversation was how many layers to wear and whether hat and gloves were for wusses.   Well call me a wuss then as I went with a base layer and vest and hat and gloves ..... but I did wear shorts to gain some credibility as a hardcore runner back.   Fair play to those who went with just vest and shorts!  The irony of this all of course is that for the last 2 or 3 years its been in the high 60's/low 70s degrees during the marathon.

The race itself was great and once we got going I didn't really notice the cold.  I managed to drop into a sub 8min mile rhythm very early into the race and maintained that throughout.  I felt especially strong on the climbs which hopefully is a result of the hill work that I have been doing recently (including the run to work which is nearly all up hill).  The net result was a massive new PB of 78:08 taking virtually 6 mins off my previous best.   I think I can now call myself an 8min miler as that's a 10k, a 10m and a half marathon where I have averaged either well under (first 2) or just over 8 mins per mile (half).

It all bodes well for my sub 4hour marathon objective which will need an average pace of sub 9min mile.  Over the next few weeks I plan to start ramping up the distances again aiming to complete 18 miles by the end of Feb, averaging 30+ miles each week.  Go hard or go home!!