On Tuesday I went down to London to watch the Olympic Triathlon - what an experience! I watched the Triathlon in Beijing and the spectators were rather sparse, a totally different story in London where Hyde Park was totally packed!
It was really inspiring and has made me even more determined to qualify for the World Triathlon Champs in London next year! However I've got to take things slowly as I come back from training, even if that has meant getting a few races under my belt.
Using races as training is helping so much as it's taking the pressure off the races as well as giving me good markers of how my training is progressing.
In previous years I've been kind of scared of racing, only wanting to race when I felt I was in shape to get a PB, and only being interested in running on fast courses. Now I'm getting the benefit of racing on different courses and conditions to help learn how to race over longer distances. I've always done well at track tactics, but my tactics for road races have been shockingly non-existant. This summer I've taken advantage of not being in PB shape as I recover from tendonitis by entering lots of fun races as training.
This Saturday was the Run The Flash 10km back at Leigh Sports Village and I was looking forward to have a nice hard run out round a lovely course.
My training leading up to the event came off the back of a hard week of racing the week before.
W/C 6th August:
Mon: 30mins easy
Tues: 4x1200m at the track. It was just me and Sandra doing this session so it was a bit too much like Sunday's race where I was trailing after her! I'd just come back from watching the Triathlon at the Olympics which was a fantastic day and inspired me to run fast. I was doing my 1200ms in around 4.40 but struggled towards the end with Sunday's races in my legs.
Weds: 45mins run
Thurs: 3x1 mile tempo (1min rec) This session was meant to have another 800m rep on the end, but I was SO tired I just could not move my legs any more and ended up pretty much crawling home!
Fri: Rest
Sat: Run The Flash 10km, Leigh, 44.13. 1st Lady. Race report below.
Sun: 75min run with the boyfriend on the bike doing a great job of keeping me company so it was a more enjoyable Sunday!
Run The Flash 10km
Using a slightly different course to the last race I ran at Leigh this was a 2 lap race and had fewer hills, which I was very happy about! It was a hot day and the field looked slightly smaller than the last one. From the start I was the first lady and got a good gap on everyone behind me by 5km so I eased off. I went through 5km in ~21 mins and then as per coach's instructions used the race as a training run and enjoyed the encouragement from the marshalls for being first lady! It was really nice to win a race and I enjoyed every step of it!
I also came 11th overall - makes a bit of a change from some of the road races I've done where I've been down in the hundreds overall! The next race organised by Sports International is the City of Salford 10km where 1st prize is £250 - unfortunately I think the competition might a bit tougher then!
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