Tuesday - 31/12/13

This is the final entry in this blog, I will create a new one for 2014.

I travelled to Mountain Ash with Stuart and Tyrone. Saw Carywn and Emrys there plus Chris Carpanini, Bilal and many more familiar faces. I ran a tired race with Sunday's 5 mile race having left my legs feeling very heavy. I trailed behind Andy Davies for nearly all of the race, was overtaken by a couple of lady runners and was also lapped. The race leader crossed the finish line while I had about 5 metres of my second lap to complete.

Sunday - 29/12/13

I did the Coventry Godiva New Year 5 mile race at Warwick University. I'm feeling a bit bloated from seasonal food excesses. It was a chilly morning with frost underfoot but the organisers - showing good foresight - had gritted the course. My (manual) splits were as follows:

07:12 - 07:12
14:24 - 07:12
22:09 - 07:45
29:09 - 06:59
36:29 - 07:19

Although this would seem to be slow it is my fastest time for this race!

Friday - 27/12/13

I did the Royal Oak - Victoria Avenue loop. I ran easily to the bottom of Victoria Avenue and then did "fast" reps to the top of Christchurch Road by Beechwood Park. I was doing 40 seconds fast with 1 minute recovery.

Wednesday - 25/12/13

I did the Newport Christmas Day Park Run at a canter - I ran most of the way with Nick Davies and we had a good old chat.

Tuesday - 24/12/13

am
I did an easy 20 minutes plus hill strides up through Beechwood Park

pm
I did the Royal Oak - Victoria Avenue loop in approx 50 minutes.

Monday - 23/12/13

am
I did an easy 20 minutes plus hills drills. It was very wet!

pm
I did the Royal Oak Victoria Avenue loop - it was still very wet and it was quite breezy too!

Sunday - 22/12/13

The Torrington Christmas Caper.
A good job we arrived early (for car parking). From the Rugby Club it was a short walk to the start. There was a steep decent on road to the first trail. It was a fairly flat mixture of road and trail after that. The serious forest climbing was omitted because of the bad weather. On the way back there was a change from retracing our footsteps as we were diverted into a field where we went steeping downhill, across a squelchy ditch and then had a serious climb across fields to the finish.

A Christmas Pudding and Clotted Cream to all finishers.
    

Saturday - 21/12/13

Newport Park Run easy.

Wednesday - 18/12/13

pm
I did the Royal Oak - Victoria avenue loop before slimming world. A very breezy afternoon but I finished before the rain storms arrived.

Tuesday - 18/12/13

am
I did an easy 20 minutes plus technique hill strides

pm
cold evening at Newport Stadium. Session: 2000, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 200 (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) recovery
with Emrys, Dave S and Carwyn.

Splits
warm up : 22 minutes
8:34; 5:02; 6:49; 4:00; 5:10; 3:00; 3:21; 1:58; 1:34; 1:00; 41
18:29 cool down

Monday - 16/12/13

am
I did an easy 20 minutes plus some hill strides. I actually went a long way in the 20 minutes. Must be fresh after not racing last weekend.

pm
I did an easy 49 minutes. The Royal Oak, Victoria Avenue loop.

Sunday - 15/12/13

I did a variation on the Eveswell Park Road loop in 46 and a bit minutes. It was fairly late on a Sunday evening after the rain had stopped. Still blowing a bit of a breeze however.

Saturday - 14/12/13

An easy run at the Newport Park Run. Still feeling rough - I  struggled round in just over half an hour. Feeling a bit under the weather is an understatement so decision not to compete in the Welsh Masters X-C Champs was confirmed as being a correct one.

Thursday - 12/12/13

I went to the track but was feeling quite weak. I've got a bug. I just jogged a few laps and then went home

Wednesday - 11/12/13

I did race 3 in the Street 5K Race series. It was a very good evening for running, not quite as chilly and breezy as for race 2. There was a slight slippiness on the road surface however.

my recorded splits were: 8:20; 12:44 and 21:24 - I missed the other two split times. I can estimate from Garmin though. Garmin measures this race at approx 5250 metres by the way!.

Monday - 09/12/13

I did the Eveswell Park Road loop. Feeling a bit stiff and aching from yesterdays cross country. Had to walk a fair bit of the steep uphill.

Sunday - 08/12/13

I did the Gwent League Cross Country at Bath University.

It was a great day for running - lovely conditions both weather wise and underfoot. I tracked Howard for most of the race but he finished in front of me. As we were climbing to the top of the second hill on lap 3 Mike Davies overtook me and he ran hard downhill on lap 4. I was able to stay with him and then ran with him on the flattish bit at the bottom and passed him on the long uphill. I worked hard to maintain my lead over Mike on the next down and up hill. I lost 1 place to a youngster (probably) but ran pretty well. Howard was in front of me (not too far) and I could see Paul Foy up in front too.
 

Thursday - 05/12/13

With Stuarts group
my splits
24:33 warm up - 2 * Oregon Circuits (9:44; 4:41; 9:38) - 3 * 125 (25; 1:48; 26; 2:21; 25; 4:46) - 4 * 75 13; 1:30; 14; 1:50; 13 - then cool down.

Thursday - 05/09/13

Wednesday - 04/12/13

afternoon
Easy 46 minutes a new course - slight extension to the Tennyson Steps loop. It's the Eveswell Park Road loop! 6.49K.