LBAC Club Run

Wow yesterday’s club run was a real blast. Who would have thought road running could be this much fun! I went out with the intention of doing around four 7 minute mile intervals with quarter mile recoveries in between. It soon became apparent however that whilst I was doing the 7 minute miling I wasn’t going to get the recoveries I planned. This was because I settled into a good stride with fellow LBAC runner Chris at the front of the pack, and Chris' approach to every run he does is flat out all of the time with 100% effort! He chuckled at the suggestion of taking a rest in between. I wasn't going to be beaten or suggest that I need rest! So it was that we maintained the effort mile after mile through the streets and parks of Leighton Buzzard.


We weren’t alone for very long though as the racing snakes in the pack soon caught up and pushed the pace on further. At this point I look down at my Garmin (which was on its best behaviour today) to see 6.10mpm pace. Bloody hell what am I doing I thought... The answer being exactly what i need to be doing! This was speed training at its best... heart pumping, lungs bursting, full out running.

What I was most surprised about from this session is that I'm not as slow as I presumed I would be after the recent ultras. My speed was there. I just need a bit more speed endurance so that I don't die in the latter stages of a race. The session ended up being exactly 9 miles in distance with an average pace of 7.07mpm. Just 4 extra miles at just above this pace would bag me a PB at the Royal Parks in 3 ½ weeks time. A real possibility then, and a huge motivator to keep the training cranked up to the max.

So it’s more of the same over the coming weeks which may look a bit like this:

Sat - Long run (plus hard hill reps session in middle)
Sun - Rest
Mon - Short sharp effort. 4 miles at close to 6mpm as possible
Tues - Rest or slow recovery run with Leighton Fun Runners
Wed - Hard fast LBAC run. 6-9 miles at 7-7:30mpm
Thurs - Rest or v. slow recovery run
Fri - Rest