...it's about the milliseconds!

So this week ended with yet another race! My house-mate had been training for the last 8 weeks from couch to 5km! And last Sunday at Clapham common he had his first taste at racing! My boyfriend and I decided during one of our long 10k training runs that instead of standing on the side line cheering Sean on we'd sign up and run with him! Though there was a little change, I did the 10k instead of the 5k with them.

http://www.innovationsports.co.uk/

The week leading up to this wasn't a great one for training or preparation. Following the British 10k on Sunday I took a rest day Monday followed by intervals on Tuesday. I have begun my 13week training program for the Royal Parks Half Marathon so I changed up the intervals to 4x600m at 13.5kph. This was a little different as I was used to longer reps of a shorter distance. I kept it up and got a great 4miles done. Though that was it for my training. Due to a lot of mismanagement of time (not from me) at lab I had to come in really early a couple mornings to run experiments which meant run in the evening ( I don't get out til after 7) or not at all. I went with the latter unfortunately. I was supposed to do a little 2-3miles on Friday evening with the boyfriend but we both worked late and it was too late to do anything. BUT I did run the .5miles to the tube station when I got a phone call about a lost oyster card. So that counts right? Got my blood pumping so it must count? Saturday also was spent walking around London instead of resting and eating a hell of a lot of meat at a BBQ that evening. I think I had 5 baby potatoes...protein loading? Oops. At least I didn't drink! Off to bed rather late after downing a pint of water and we were up at the crack of dawn.

Me and my protégé! 

The day was gorgeous! Sun was shining and we were ready. Well Sean was. The two boys started 2 minutes before me in the 5km heat. I was slightly nervous as I felt under prepared but off I went. There were a lot of runners and the paths were narrow but everything seemed okay for the first 2km. That was until I saw the amount of trail we had to run on and the muck from the last month or so of rain. The route was lovely, if it had been dry. There were a couple of moments where I thought I would slip around corners, especially when some unkind woman elbowed my and pushed me out of her way. But even with a silly 8min/mile first mile I was on track. I had a pacer and was following their nice 8.20pace. I saw the boys at their 4th Km which was great (not due to catching up but a meandering course)! They looked good! They got to turn off the track and finish while I carried on for a second lap.They finished in a great 27minutes though Reis beat Sean by 2/10s of a second! Wowzer!

 I was conscious of the fact that ~1,000 runners had already ran on the mucky track so I kept an eye on the mud. I felt quite tired around the 8k mark which was annoying but I slowed for about 2mins and then got back up to speed. At the last 300m I saw the boys cheering me on. The words sprint were being screamed so I felt I had to. I paced out 2 guys in my effort and got across in a great sub 55 time!

Clapham Common had a great race! I would recommend it to anyone! Pity about the muck but the marshals were great and the atmosphere for a small race amazing! I would do this again but maybe checking the weather first....

New shoes?

Now onto my question of the week. Does anyone else find this when using a stopwatch or some sort of timer. I know that there are lots of times when routes are longer/shorter then they should but what do you go with? This happened last week and this week again. My chip time was 54.53 but my watch.....measured a 53.54 as the route was longer...annoying in a way but could be worse! Could be shorter!

Next up is the Royal Parks but I'm sure a 5k and another 10k will be shoved in there! :)