Winter base training ended, first week of April, with a stunning 20 mile race around the Berkshire countryside near Compton.
I enjoyed a few weeks of racing - a 10k, a couple of parkruns, and my favourite race of all time, the, err, hilly, 8 mile, West Wight Three Hills on the Isle of Wight. A handful of tempo runs, plenty of Keith Bateman drills, and style-conscious striding barefoot in the local park made up the bulk of the training during this period. Ordinarily, this phase should last 6 to 8 weeks, but I'm targeting a June to July t&f season, so it had to be cut short.
On Saturday 29th April, I opened my SPEED account for the year, with an 8x200m off 200m jog session with Jon Tilt and his Saturday Breakfast Club. The aim is to have a month of speed training, to be ready for the June & July peak.
However, as an early season tester, I raced 800m, outdoors, for the first time this 2017 summer season at the weekend (13th May), after just two weeks of speed training.
I was very pleased with the race, which was at the Hampshire County Championships 800m. Thankfully there were a few "youngsters" (lads in their 20s and 30s!) to pull me round, for a very pleasing 2:06.54. It was a windy race, and I had to put a spurt in from 500 to 600m to get in behind the guy in front before the wind hit, meaning that from 600m to 800m I was absolutely swimming in lactic!
But I was pleased that the gait style is coming on well at these speeds. This picture is at 680m, as the pinnacle of lactic was washing through me!
