Cambridge and Coleridge Tuesday session

I went along to the Tuesday session of Cambridge and Coleridge last night. As Thursday's session it started out at the Cambridge University sports ground. A lot more people than Thursday's session. There were a choice of 2 groups ; one was a track session and the other was a road session. Paul who runs at SRC and parkrun (he had told me he want along to these sessions and to give them a try) was there and I chatted with him at the warm up session.

I decided to join the road session. We set off towards Grantchester Meadows via Newnham. On the way we did a quick road session and the leader said runners before one of the group were in the faster group, which I was. At Newnham we did a short sprint session and then we did a fartlek session along a very muddy footpath alongside the river ; it felt like doing Cambridge parkrun as the path was muddy and twisty and turning.

When we got to Grantchester Meadows the group were split and the slower group were given a 1 minute head start along the tarmac path. The aim was for the faster runners in the fast group to overtake the faster runners in the slower group and the slower runners in the faster group to overtake the slowers runners in the slower group. This leg was about 1km. I was in the faster group, but couldn't keep up with the faster runners. I wasn't the slowest in the faster group but I couldn't manage to catch any of the slower group.

The next part of the session was a loop round some tracks. This was up and down hill and slippy so I took it easy.

We then repeated the 1km session back along the tarmac path, with a 45 second gap between the groups. I went with the faster group and managed to overtake one of the slower group.

We then jogged back to the track with one faster session. This was a hard session for me and felt harder than some of the SRC sessions.

I feel that these sessions could really improve my speed and I will probably join the Cambridge and Coleridge club.

Hill session

I went along to a session with the Cambridge and Coleridge club last night. I thought I'd go along and see what I think with a view to possibly joining. The meet point is the Cambridge University Athletics Club in Wilberforce Road. Initially, I wasn't sure I had got there on the right day, as most of the people seemed to be youngsters who were training on the track. Met up with Glyn who organises the session and some other people who were coming along and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. There were 5 of us all together. More people go to the Tuesday night sessions, but that's not such a good night for me to get along to. We ran out over the M11 towards Coton. We started off with 4 up and down hill circuits. I found this hard as I haven't done much hill training. I was at the back but managed to complete all 4. I thought we had finished but then we then had 3 minutes rest and then did another 4, the 2nd 4 in some ways didn't seem so hard, but initially I thought 4 was enough. We then ran back to the meet point.

Very hard session, but glad to have completed it. I had felt a bit lethargic this week and a bit lacking in motivation, so was good to do this session. I think I will try and get along to some more sessions with C&C and may join.

Gorleston Cliffs freedom parkrun

Last Friday I ran 6 miles home from dropping the kids at school. This was really hard going and my legs felt tired. It was probably best that there wasn't much running planned for the weekend ; we went camping to Kessingland near Lowestoft in Suffolk. I had planned to fit in a parkrun at Fritton Lake while we there, which wasn't too far away. I had checked their parkrun news page to see if it was on and there were no announcements to the contrary, unfortunately when I got there, there was a triathlon so the event was cancelled. This was very disappointing as I had been looking forward to trying out a new parkrun course.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time to get to the other nearby parkrun at Gorleston Cliffs near Great Yarmouth. I thought I would check out the course anyway so that next time I can find it (we may go back camping to Kessingland next year).

I found it and did a freedom park run of the course. Garmin connect here :

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190067252

It's not quite the parkrun course, as I hadn't checked the course out beforehand, but pretty close. Enjoyed this run and did it fairly fast. I had the wind behind me one way. Not sure the course is a good one for a PB. The cliffs only rise by about 30 feet !

I ran 3 miles over the field and then round the village and back today. Nice day for running and I felt fairly good and ran quite fast today.

Sweatshop Running Community

Went along last night to the Sweatshop Running Community (SRC). I have been going on and off since last year and have been going quite regularly recently. I have got to know quite a few people now and see them at parkrun and other local events. Everybody is really friendly and its always a great session. No exception last night. We jogged up to Fulbourn Drift and then did a fartlek session up one of the few hills around Cambridge and around Fulbourn. My legs felt quite tired still after Sunday, but I still managed to put in a decent session. We then all jogged back to the start point which is at Cambridge Sweatshop at the David Lloyd gym for a warm-down.

Here's an old picture of the group :

Heroes Half Marathon

I ran in the Heroes Half Marathon on Sunday. The start and first 3 miles were at the Bassingbourn Army Training Regiment base. I got there in good time and got parked about 100 metres from the start. Strolled over and got my number and chip and chatted to a few people I know from the Sweatshop Running Community. Hardly any queue to get my number. The conditions were very warm and it wasn't feeling that great at the start (had a bit of a headache). Bit of a queue for toilets, but not too bad. And then we were off.

I was hoping to get close to 1:45, which would have meant an 8 minute mile pace. After the first mile, I knew that pace was too fast, with the heat and not feeling 100%. Also the furthest I had run in the last few weeks was 9 miles, so probably not enough, but I've been recovering from the Hamburg Marathon on 29th April so haven't done many longer runs. Settled down to 8:30 pace, although at mile 4 I felt good and speeded up to an 8 min mile pace. The course then went onto a long straight uphill run without any shade. At 6 miles there was a water station, which I was really glad to get to. Had a few sips and the rest went over my head to cool down. Next 2 miles I slowed down even further and did these 2 at 9 min / mile pace. I then had some jelly babies, but they were a bit old and hard !

From 9 miles I was determined to beat my time set at the Peterborough Great Eastern back in October, as I know I'm fitter now and the Hamburg Marathon has made me more confident in my abilities and my pain threshold has increased ! A half marathon can't possibly be as hard as the last 4 or 5 miles of a marathon ! It was still hot, though and I saw a runner near the end who was in a bad shape. I heard afterwards it was quite serious and he had to be taken to hospital. He's ok now, thankfully. Pushed on and completed in 1:53:34, a 25 year best !

You can see from the picture it was hard and I was glad to finish. Felt exhausted for the rest of the day, but was pleased with my performance, considering I wasn't quite ready for the race.