Week 4 Training - Bradford 10K Race Report

A big week for me was nearly put in jeopardy due to an ongoing battle with my mouth and jaw since my wisdom tooth extraction 10 days ago. Still in a lot of pain, I managed a 3 mile easy run on Monday but was forced to miss my interval session on Wednesday because of said mouth and jaw. I was back out for a 4 mile 10K race pace run on Thursday but pulled up after the 2nd mile as my left calf and quads felt really tight and I didn't want to push it. A steady 2 miles on Saturday evening felt fine but I was obviously not quite as prepared as I wanted to be for my 1st 10k race at Bradford this morning.

With an early 9am start time I was up with the early bird, washed, breakfasted and out the door by 7.10am - far from my usual Sunday morning start! I arrived with about 35 mins to the start of the race and felt really good. I'd had a decent breakfast, a banana on the way and was half way through a Lucozade 500ml body fuel drink.

With my target time of 49min59secs I put myself at the back of the Sub 50min section at the start and set off trying has hard as a could to take it steady and not go out too hard. The 1st 1km was a bit of an obsticle course as we navigated our way down and round a fair few little roads before getting out onto the main, and wider, part of the course. It is these starts that I'm going to have to get used to as many runners wanted to charge forward with the odd slip and tumble along the way. Not for me though, at least not this time!

I went through 2km in 9 minutes and realised I was running 30 seconds faster per kilometre than had planned to. I was conscious from that point I needed take it steady in the 1st half of the race, aiming to run a negative split (a quicker 2nd half than 1st) and not burning out in the later stages of the race.

At the half way point I was 2 - 3 mins up and still feeling relatively fresh. Although my heart was telling me I needed to push on and try to break 45mins my head was quick to overule, instisting I ran my planned race and didn't start my final push until 8km. My head of course turned out to be right and by 8km I was over 4 minutes up on my time with enough energy left for a strong finish.

It started hurting with about 400m to go but I knew that a sub 45min time was close, really close. I dug deep on the final straight, passing a few more club runners on the way and came through just under 45mins with a time of 44min56secs. I'm obviously over the moon with this race and am definitely going to revise my marathon time for September, 3h45min - 3h50min perhaps.

I dedicated my run today to Run for Japan, a website set up for the global running community to do their bit for the victims of the teribble earthquake and tsunami. The idea is to cover 24,901 miles (right around the world) in 28 days with at least one run dedicated from every country in the World. Each runner then donates at least one unit of their home currency per mile run, or km in my case. For any runners who would like to be involved in this worthwhile cause check out their website at www.runforjapan.com

A 19 mile week next week which I hope will be a little less up and down than this week has been. I've well and truly got the running bug now and can't wait for my next race at the Hinckley Half Maraton on 8th May - Who wants to join me?!!

Till next week,

Steve

RACE WINNERS

MENS

Matthew Clough - Leeds City AC - 32:31

WOMENS

Margaret Beever - Stainland Lions RC - 38:58

Race Results can be viewed here.

Week 3 Training - Teeth, Training and Tunage!

Another busy week which saw me again squeezing in the runs as and when, including a 10pm run on Wednesday. 5 runs completed with a total of 15.5 miles for the week, that's 44.5 miles so far!

It was great to get the sponsorship off the mark this week and I have now raised 7% of my target total of £1000, thanks to those who have sponsored me in support of the British Heart Foundation. If you would like to donate please go to http://www.justgiving.com/stevetrotter or, if you would prefer, grab a sponsorship form next time you see me.

Key sessions this week included a hard 6 x 1/4 mile interval run and, more importantly, 4 miles at my 10K target pace of 8mins/mile. The latter felt really good and gives me a lot of confidence going into my first 10K race at the Epilepsy Action 10k setting off at 9.00am on Sunday from Centenary Sq, Bradford.

I managed a shortened 1.5 mile hill session on Friday before my date with the hospital dentist for an extraction of a wisdom tooth. My appointment time was of course 2:30pm (that's tooth-hurty!) and by the end of Friday I certainly did have a tooth that was hurting very much!

After taking it easy on Saturday I managed an enjoyable long run of 5 miles on Sunday, trying out a Motion Traxx podcast using a 170bpm track. Although the music was a little TRANCE for my liking it did make it easier to keep my run at an even pace and, with an average pace of 8.38mins/mile, I was slightly faster than expected. Still, felt surprisingly fresh after the run and have started to consider possibly increasing my marathon target pace from 9.00mins/mile to 8:45mins/miles - this would give me a target marathon time of 3hr 50mins.

A steady training week next week in the build up to my 10k race, here's hoping the tooth (or at least the hole where the tooth used to be) carries on as just a very dull ache and doesn't get any worse.

Till next week,

Steve