Week in Review: 14 - 20 Mar '16

Dialed back the training quite a bit this week as I was racing the Fleet Half Marathon on Sunday and I really wanted to do well. Last year I ever-so-slightly mis-paced things such that even a mad-panic sprint down the finishing straight wasn't enough to dip under 80mins and I didn't want to do that again this time round.

Started the week off with my usual rest day on Monday - these are proving to be so valuable - and then performed a 10k MAF test on Tuesday. This was a great test and proves all this training is definitely working. Every kilometer in this test was under 5:00/km and the first kilometer was the fastest first kilometer in a MAF test ever.

I kept things nice and easy on Wednesday and Thursday and then rested Friday and Saturday to ensure I was in good shape for Sunday morning.

Sunday morning rolled around and it was a cold overcast morning with a very slight breeze… perfect for racing. I was also feeling well rested and eager to smash it, and smash it I did. I used a similar pacing strategy as at the Wokingham half last month, but successfully this time 🙂. I started off with a pace of about 3:48/km for the first 5km. Picked up the pace to around 3:46/km for the next 11km and then pulled out the stops as best I could for the last 5km with the aim of getting as many of those under 3:46/km as I could.

This strategy paid off perfectly resulting in a negative split, a sub-80mins half-marathon, by quite a margin, and I passed 10M in 1:00:46 meaning I should be able to get under 1h for the 10M on Friday.

Looking over my PowerOf10 profile, this year's Fleet half-marathon is my fastest ever UKA licensed race. I've run quicker on two previous occasions, both at the Maidenhead half-marathon, but it's not a UKA licensed race as Purple Patch Runners (PPR), the organiser, prefer to use the cheaper ARC permit, though interestingly they don't pass on the savings in the race entry fee 😞.

Going to take things a easy again this week so I'm in good shape for Friday's Maidenhead Easter 10. I missed sub-60 by 15 seconds last year. I think I'm in shape to smash that this year.