"Return to the Wilmslow Half"

It's now a month since the end of the cross country and as the track season has yet to kick in I had decided after last years successful race to make a return visit yesterday to the fast and flat Wilmslow Half, which this year was the host for the England Athletics Championships. Although I had a couple of steady weeks of training behind me, my lack of quality speed work and longer runs really found me out. I was cruising (or so it felt) for the first 10 miles, covered in 71 minutes, but the last three really exposed my lack of training as I quickly dropped right off the pace and came in with very little left in the tank in 1.35.49 .

Mile splits were also all over the place, literally!
6.45/7.09/6.49/7.17/6.51/7.14/7.06/7.16/7.41/7.41/7.28/7.36/7.51!/0.58.

The real problem was I didn't know if I was running or racing so the effort was inconsistent. However it was a minute quicker last year and shows I can go sub 1.33 minutes at the Swift Half in May if I put my mind to it. The other good thing about this race is the runners bag at the end which this year contained a fantastic tech t-shirt which will be great when the weather picks up, but not today when after an hour and a half out on the bike my hands were frozen to the handlebars as the temperature drops again by 11c compared to race day. So much for Spring!

It's now just two weeks to the first track meeting where I will be most definitely having to race!

Weekly mileage 34. Annual mileage 329 (week 12)