23rd January 2007

4 Mile Run = Home – Smalley Cross – Wood Lane – Home

Date:

Conditions: Cold, Dry

Notes: Having failed miserably in my first attempt at a LT workout I made a second attempt and have to say that I believe that I improved by a thousand percent. After a long warm up due to the freezing temperatures I set out at a really steady pace and tried to remember and duplicate my pace from the Worksop Half Marathon.
As I reached the one mile marker I saw that I was around thirty seconds faster than my half marathon pace. This was nearly a minute improvement on my first attempt a week ago. If you take off my improvement I believe I got this almost spot on. I was running with ease and my breathing was easy.
The second mile was relatively down hill so again I took my time so not to get excited and burn out before the one mile hill up Wood lane. I crossed the mile two marker seven seconds faster than mile one so with the decline of mile two I again I believe I got it spot on. I was feeling amazing but that could all change with the grueling hill that was soon upon me.
After you pass the mile two marker at the bottom of Wood Lane there are no street lights and for around two hundred meters you are running in pure darkness so there is no choice but to slow down and of course I lost a lot of time but this run was not all about completing the course in record time. As I got back into the light the course took a huge incline but I just kept the pace I was going and I never really tired or slowed down due to fatigue. ‘Eye of the Tiger’ came on my I Pod so I had even more determination and fuel to get me to the top. At the top of the hill there is a short decline before another grueling climb to the top of Wood Lane. As I made the final approach I did feel an ever so slight stitch come on but I pushed through it and made it to the top without slowing and was then on course for the final mile of this four mile circuit.
The final mile was a steady run along Dobholes Lane and after regaining my lost form due to the hill I was off again but although I was far from tired I stuck at the same pace as I had throughout the run. I reached the end of the run feeling good. As I warmed down the only pain I had was a sore nose from breathing in freezing cold air for thirty minutes.
In closing this was probably the best I have ever felt at the beginning, middle and at the completion of the run. I have knocked nearly two minutes off my PB for this course and I wasn’t even trying to. I felt amazing throughout and my only quarrel with the run was that I had to constantly keep pushing my ear phones back in, which proves how much I enjoyed the run.


Positive: I knocked nearly two minutes of my PB for this course.
Negative: I had to keep pushing my ear phones back in.

Days to Edinburgh Marathon: 124

Fast Mile: 7.47

Slow Mile: 9.27

Run Time time: 31.48



“A man can often do today what he could not do yesterday.”