12th July 2007

Coxbench 8 Mile

Date: 12th July 2007

Conditions: Sunny, Humid

Run Type: Easy

Notes: When I first started running, eight miles would be a long run that really took it out of me. Now it is simply a mid week easy run. I try and run as many different routes as possible, so for today’s run I designed a new course.
After the usual Mile/Warm up (MWU) I set out towards Coxbench on an extremely warm, summers evening. The heat I knew would come into play if I pushed too hard too soon, so I spent the second mile easing into this run, but from the very start I was running well and really enjoying this course. To be fair the second mile is a long gradual decline down to the ‘Shit farm’.
Having passed the shit farm, the course leads onto Derby Road towards the A38 and this is where I really started to get into my stride. I was running with ease, no aches, no pains, no breathing problems and I was mentally blocking out the heat of the sun. I again imagined that I was out in front of a race. I have found that this mental block of the actual training run really helps. I may never actually win a race, so this is a nice alternative!
As I turned off Derby Road onto Coxbench Road at mile four I remember feeling great so I upped the pace a little, but this was somewhat of a mistake. I was running well until around mile five, when the heat broke through my mental block and started to slow me down. I believe that a drink at this point would have prevented this but I did not have that luxury.
I pushed through the heat but as I approached Morley and mile six I felt the aching in my neck that I suffered with in Edinburgh, which quickly got worse, a lot worse. I decided at the mile six marker to make a quick pit stop and stretch it out. The stretching worked and I was soon back on course and ready to tackle Smalley Hill. I knew my time was fairly quick so I pushed myself up the hill to try and get that sub one hour seven miles that has eluded me by around a minute in previous runs. I reached the seven mile marker in 59:13 and was very pleased with my efforts.
I knew I was on for an eight mile PB so I again pushed the final mile for a sub seventy minute and crossed the finish line shaving almost three minutes off my PB.
In all a good run with one low point, but what I learnt from looking at my splits is that if I ran a quick mile of 7:30-8:15, then the next mile was always slower. My next goal is to even these splits out. This was however still only an easy run, but I decided to put a little effort in and it paid off. I am improving, as the results clearly show.

Run time: 1:07:10 *PB

Pace: 8:24 / mile

Days to New York Marathon: 114



“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”