Training Log Archive: AC

Update on London City Race. Turns out I came 14th - a few late starters bumped me down the list. The front three were all in around 40 minutes, but then a real traffic jam from 41 minutes onwards. Looking at the splits, I lost a full minute at #1 and then another 1 1/2 minutes at #11. I also seem to have had a slow patch from half way with the leg times just dropping from in the top 10 to more in the 30s. So fitness clearly telling there, but picked up over last third of the course. The last leg was also annoying with 20s dropped there. So a total of three minutes just in silly mistakes. This would not have got me down to the top three, but certainly in amongst the top 6-7 places. Next year!

Headed out for an afternoon spin. Out to Versailles and a quick loop in the countryside beyond. Lots of traffic with lots of Sunday drivers and associated behaviour. Legs a bit tired after yesterday's race.

London City Race. Another fun race. Cool but cloudy and humid, with a bit of rain around. Didn't rain during my run or when I took Freya around the children's course, but was pretty soaked as a result of teh humidity by the end of the run. Good to catch up with Blair and Chris Norwood, as well as regulars Nick Campbell and Jane Mockford.

Race off to a bad start when I got quite confused from the start triangle. Wasn't "in the zone" at all at the start and had trouble first finding the start triangle and then orienting the map correctly. Figured I had to go around the big hill just near the start and so headed uphill. This strategy worked in terms of getting to #1, but still lost at least 30-40 secs. Settled into a good rhythm after that and was really enjoying the run. Didn't fall into a clever trap at #4. Picked a good route on the long leg to 9 from one side of the map to the other, but didn't execute well in the middle of the leg when I got confused at the same hill that was on the way to #1 and ran past a small path I had to take. Doubled back quickly, but still cost 20 secs. Made another error at #11 when I missed a narrow alley - another 50-60 secs dropped. Fine for the rest of the run, but started to run out of steam and energy. Lost another few secs at the end when didn't concentrate on the last control - very annoying.

Finished up in 10th place out of around 170 starters, around 4.30 behind the winner. I don't think I could have gone that fast, but was certainly within sight of 3rd place with an error-free run. Definitely will be back next year!

C • good result 4

Event: London City Race Weekend
 

A bit of a cooler day and headed into the Bois (just for a change!) for a short run - time was constrained due to work pressures. Did a 2.5km warm-up then stepped it up for 2km at a steady tempo, averaging 4.30/km. easy jog to warm down. Felt pretty heavy and a bit tired. May be coming down with a cold as my daughter is celebrating her first week back at school by bringing home a nasty cold :-(.

Lunchtime interval session on a cloudy and very humid day. Wasn't really feeling up for it, but nevertheless id 10 x 90s H / 60s E. Pace jumped around a bit, but tried to keep the effort steadily increasing over the course of the run. fastest was 4.04, but mostly in the 4.15-4.22 range. Pretty tired by the end but still running strongly.