A map of recovery and you are here ----->

Doing alright :-)

So taking it steady, easy & sensible in my running comeback has seemed to have worked, also other stuff in Mr. K`s world has settled down after a turbulent but necessary time which means Mr K can smile at the world again.

After May`s 85 miles & looking at June`s plans I decided to play it sensible and taper before the South Downs Half marathon, well I say taper in a loose sense of the word - if you count 3 parkruns in 4 four days, followed up with a 10Km during the week a taper BUT I did only run 9 miles in the week before that.

Within those 9 miles it did include a fitness test or commonly known as the 1st in a series of 3 Woodland 5 & a bit - 5.27M in 47:18 - Ave 8:59/m.

Yes and big thanks to the Queen`s long reign it did mean 3 parkruns in 4 four days. On the Saturday we went over to Bushy Park for their parkrun, it was great to go back - my other two outings were in my early parkrun days & did include a Christmas day run. For so many runners they do run a slick operation there (basically if you get the chance do make the effort but get there early). Pleased with my run as it was a `good effort run` - in terms of constant pace, work rate & final time - 3.14M in 24:26 - Ave 7.47/m.



On Bank Holiday Monday we went over to Riddlesdown parkrun - a great set-up on what I thought was a great course. Again a good effort run & sneaking a sub 25 min run (3.06M in 24:50 - Ave 8.07/m). The post run coffee was unusual in the fact it was at a pub but pleased to see that quite a few runners made the way over there. On Tuesday it was back at Frimley - felt like ages since I ran there last - it was actually good fun to jog round except for the last 50 or so metres when `someone` could not resist racing ~ 28:xx + mins

On Wednesday night it was another fitness test - I do think these series of tests will be a strong feature this Summer plans - it was the Yateley 10Km. The plan was again a `Good effort` run, which generally it was but no-one likes to be beaten by a club mate of 3 seconds....always next month I will plot my revenge. (6.24M in 51:22 - Ave 8:14/m)



So the South Downs Half Marathon. I had originally entered the full when I was planning in my TR24 but changed it to the half...and thank goodness I did :-O Now having driven past Queen Elizabeth Park & the radio I had often seen walkers going up to the radio mast - not many running thou. It has been a while since I`ve entered a 2:09 events race, I had tried to get there early and watch the marathons runners going off but a Costa Coffee stop & Danish on the way down got it the way.

As the runners assembled the time ticked towards 10.00 am start - soon enough we were all on the grassy bank above the start / finish gantry. We had a count down then we were off. The start was fairly flat for a short while then up, up & up a lot more. I hadn`t checked the course (much more `fun` this way) but it felt to me like the start of the Midsummer`s Munro Half Marathon on Box Hill - I did that half in 2:33 (& torn my shin tendon) - 1st mile in 13:xx, managed to get my lungs back into working order at the top. The 2nd mile was unfairly slow as we all made our way down a slippy chalky track & waited patiently at a stile. After that we made our way around the Radio Mast & back down towards the start / finish.

The 5Km in just over 40 minutes - right that was my parkrun out of the way lets do this 10 mile run. As we made our way over the the other side of the Park, and even thou I wasn`t racing I clawed back quite a few places which was nice. It was such a nice course & pleased that we could enjoy the views & SO pleased the weather had completely changed & it was turning out to be a nice day & that the tracks had dried out otherwise it would have been a long day. At 7 miles I took the opportunity to tweet an update - I made 5 miles in 60 mins.


By this stage in the race I had noticed two things I had forgotten - the smell of the countryside - I had not taken any Clarity tablets in the days before so suffered a bit but have to say that was really a small price to pay & the other is that the Garmin loses distance in the tracks & up & down the hills. By half way I was apparently `out` by about 0..5 miles, the upside to this was in the latter stage was seeing 10.4 miles on the garmin and then seeing the 11 mile marker on the course. I didn`t appreciate the energy sapping climb at 9M - this passed & I enjoyed the run for home.

Afterwards I made my way to the grassy bank to watch the remaining runners coming home but my running efforts & the sun beating down got to me & I fell asleep - opps sorry about that.

Totally enjoyable day & pleased for Mike & his team at 2:09 that the day turned to be good one. It is on the expensive side but totally worth it. I have a sneaky feeling that I`ll toe the start line again....unsure if it will be the half or the full......


 
My recovery run on Sunday made my weekly mileage a yearly best of 34.8 miles - I am planning an easy week this week,


It would seem that my paces are;
5Km - around 8:00/m
10Km - around 8:14/m
10M - around 9.00/m

Next up is the Forest 5 next Wednesday.