Great Eastern Run Peterborough

Million % have been down with something from middle of last week onwards. That kinda cheers me up because after last weekends Frostbite run the old deamons about training were kicking in this week and although 54 miles in 5 days is decent it's not the 70+ I was looking for and the pace has been a struggle.

Saturday evening after running around with the kids all day (football training & a party) I was shattered and in bed by 9pm hoping to shake off whatever is in my system. So this morning, woke up feeling fantastic. Legs felt great and for the first time in a long time they appreciated the day off running that I had given them.

Picked Stevie B up from Somersham and had agreed to drive the 1.25 train for him at 6.2x pace for the run. We talked tactics about what to expect and how to manage the race. Got to the car park a bit late and tried to find Kye, DC & Ed but my morning guts were up to their old tricks so was off to John Lewis looking for a poo !!

Dumped kit (pardon the pun) then quick jog - 1.25 miles or so very very slow feeling really fresh. Got to the start line and met DC & Kye, saw a few familiar face like Maddy & John O from C&C and after saying hello's took Stevie back a bit into the pack warning him about going off with the pack.

Gun went off after some faffing about and were into our running. Have to slow Stevie down as my Garmin is showing 5:55 pace early doors and Stevies is showing 6:3x !

Clock 6.09 for the first mile feeling really easy but I can already sense Stevie is pushing a little hard. Get through the next 3 miles in 6.23, 6.26 & 6.32 and Stevie is dropped. Think about hanging back but just decide to keep to the plan and if he has a second wind he'll rejoin me.

Click the next few miles off nicely overtaking all and sundry just working through groups to keep my mind active. What becomes clear is although I feel nicely controlled at this pace mentally I am not as string as I need to be. When I drift out of the zone it starts becoming hard work!

Get to 8 miles feeling pretty easy then I start catching less people so dig in to 10 miles to catch a group and meet Rich H going very slow. Jog 100m or so with him at 7+ mm then say our goodbyes. If I'd have know he was running I'd have given him a lift the slippery old racing snake !!

Last 5k work with a few guys and wind the pace up somewhat at the end. Splits below for the race -

6.09 (155)
6.23 (163)
6.26 (165)
6.32 (164)
6.25 (165)
6.30 (167)
6.19 (169)
6.15 (169)
6.24 (170)
6.18 (172)
6.27 (172)
6.24 (173)
6.07 (177)
5:40 pace (181)

Acording to the official results I over took 39 people in the second half and 0 overtook me so shows it was nicely ran :)

Got to say that I felt very controlled today. The pace did feel quick but I have not trained anywhere near those paces so this is ALL off pure base work and I am extreemly happy that with the illness this week it's a good place to be. I don't honestly think I could have raced much quicker but I really enjoyed the run today.

It also highlights to me how important getting my base is, I am still 6/8 weeks off being really strong and it's all about consistency.

Last weeks 5 mile race was 71% WAVA and todays was 72% off feeling better so really happy with how it worked out. Next test will be St Neots half and I will try to run 6:00/mm there and see how it goes for similar effort.

Also, Tuesdays MP/HMP session gave 6:21/mm as HMP and that was spot on to the second today !!