Salford 10km - PB time!

Finally, a beautifully sunny day in Manchester! Perfect conditions for the Salford 10km on Good Friday.
I'd been looking forward to this race for ages. Having not run a 10km since the Leeds Abbey Dash in November I was hoping to get under 39 minutes for the first time. However I hadn't eased off training at all because the main focus is on the English Duathlon Champs in a few weeks time, so I wasn't sure how I'd feel on the day. I'd done a hard track session on Tuesday as normal and my standard Wednesday night Run-bike-run session before taking it easy on Thursday with a steady 6 mile run. I was struggling to walk upstairs on Thurs though and to be honest I think this helped relieve any pressure of trying to run a good time.
I also decided to test out my new pre-race fuel plan in preparation for my next duathlon. For the first time I tried the Hi-5 energy gel and 4:1 energy drink as part of my breakfast. I wanted to see how my stomach would deal with these in race conditions and of course the best way to get race conditions is an actual race!

We (support team and me) got to race HQ, found a place to park, registered and then I went to change into my race kit. After pinning my number on my vest, I found I'd left my racing shoes at home! Luckily my house is only 10-15mins from the race start, so we drove at speed back to get them! I got back to the race ten mins before the start, managed a short jog warm up and then took my place on the start line. The field for this race was huge! Aware that I wasn't fully warmed up, I slotted myself in a few rows back, not wanting to get caught up in the early charge and tire myself out before I was fully warmed up.

I started steady, moved through nicely and after 3km I was lucky to find a man running at about the same pace as me and also overtaking people gradually - I used him as good motivation to keep me going for the next 6km. There were times when he pulled ahead a few yards and I had to work hard to keep in touch. I went through the first 5km feeling comfortable, in 18.50 - a 5km pb! Knowing I was on for a good 10km pb I pushed on and with just 1km to go, I spotted a couple of ladies further up the road and really put my foot down.
I crossed the line in 37.54 - a HUGE pb!
Absolutely can't believe it! I think I just had one of those days where everything feels great. The whole race I was working hard but felt in control, and felt strong.
Hopefully I'll have a few more of these days!
This race has a reputation as a fast course with lots of good times set here every year, so it attracts a really strong field.

It was great to catch up with a couple of old Shropshire runners who finished 2nd and 3rd - Ali Lavender and former Telford AC clubmate Tessa Walker

1    Rebecca    Robinson    Kendal AC    00:34:20
2    Alison    Lavender    Oswestry Olympians    00:35:22
3    Tess    Walker    Salford Harriers AC    00:35:27
4    Siobhan    Evans    Eryri Harriers    00:36:44
5    Dionne    Allen    Leigh Harriers    00:36:51
6    Kirsteen    Young    Leeds City AC    00:37:12
7    Sarah    Jarvis    Liverpool Harriers    00:37:16
8    Jo    Buckley    Bingley Harriers    00:37:37
9    Sarah    Mackness    Altrincham & District AC    00:37:54
10    Amy    Green    Keighley and Craven AC    00:38:08

I can't wait for a 5km road race now to get an official 5km pb - after running a 5km duathlon split of 17.54 and clocking 18.50 at half way today, I'm keen to see what an accurate 5km time for me is!
After a good run at the National XC, it's great to be getting the results that go with all the ridiculously hard training I've been doing so far this year!

I feel like I owe a huge thank you to my boyfriend for his endless support - it makes such a difference to my recovery to know dinner will be on the table when I get home from training, plus it saves me so much time, meaning I can cram even more training into my busy days. I'm not sure he's too keen on the amount of time I spend training, but it's great to see how happy he is when I have a good race. Time to recover and enjoy the Easter weekend together now!

Here's a snap from February's warm weather training trip to Spain - wish I could do more of my Winter training in the sunshine!

National XC Champs!

Let me set the scene for the National Cross Country Champs by reporting that a week after the race, I still do not have full feeling back in my toes.
For days after the race I was pretty much falling over every time I woke up and got out of bed, because my toes were numb.
I have never ever had such cold feet in my life! And that's saying something after the Midlands Cross Country Champs in Stafford a month ago.

With the Nationals up in Sunderland this year, I'd been looking forward to the race for a while and was determined to have a good run here. When the Nationals were held here a few years ago I was running in my first ever Senior Champs and had a great run despite a broken toe. Our Ladies team also picked up a Silver team medal, making it a fantastic day out.

A few years later and our team is a little depleted with my team mates focusing on marathons and a couple having babies. After a lot of tough cross country races this year, not everybody was very keen on yet another hard race, especially with the long journey - so it ended up being just me and Claire. Claire stayed at mine the night before to cut down the long journey and we left bright and early on Saturday morning. Thanks to social media we'd seen photos of the snow on the course before we even left the house, so we were prepared for cold conditions. As we headed north the snow started to fall and an accident on the M1 led to an interesting detour through Yorkshire to avoid the long delays.

For anybody reading this who hasn't experienced that National XC - it is an absolutely massive race. Thousands of people competing across all the age groups. This creates a fantastic atmosphere with coach loads of athletes from 11 to 111 (almost!) arriving from all over the country. It does however present some logistical challenges for the organisers and this year parking as a 10 minute bus ride from the course on a large industrial park. Thanks to some optimistic directions from myself ~ "I'm sure we'll find a space here" - we parked up as close to a bus stop and the course as we could and caught the bus to the course.

When we got off the bus the snow was still falling and it was bitterly cold. Tough conditions!
We warmed up (kind of) in the snow - thank goodness for waterproof shoes! changed into my spikes and instantly my feet were freezing. Doing strides through ice cold puddles meant my feet had gone numb before I even reached the startline. Regardless I had in my mind that this was the last XC race of the season and there was no way I was having a bad race!

As for the race itself - the gun went and I just ran as hard as I could the whole way round! I focused on getting a good start and making sure I was in a good position by the end of the first 600m at the bottom of the long downhill stretch. From then on it was a case of not letting anybody overtake me, overtaking as many people as I could and just pushing hard throughout! The conditions were tough and at times it felt more like a slog than a race but I actaully enjoyed the whole race. It was one of those rare days when it feels great to be racing hard! Recognising a few runners around me who I wanted to beat I managed to put in a good sprint finish overtaking a handful of women in the last 100m. I've still no idea how I managed this though as I was absolutely shattered and the finishing straight was one big mud pit! I overtook one lady who appeared to have actually got stuck in the mud and had come to a halt!

I'm happy to report that all the effort and suffering in the horrendous conditions was worth it as I finished 102nd - my best ever place in the Senior Nationals.

Afterwards Claire and I tried to warm down, but we were shivering too much, even with all our layers back on! We were both covered head to toe in mud - as you can see! Luckily we got back to the car quite quickly and home in good time - I still hadn't warmed up though and I was shivering for the rest of the evening. Regardless, I'm now recovering and very pleased with a great end to my cross-country season.

Next year I've got some big aims for cross country after the improvements I've made over the last few months. Now it's on to my main aim for the year - a good duathlon and triathlon season. And hopefully no more races in snow for a while!