Pewsey 10k

Saturday 24th May
Body pump in the morning, no cardio. Rachel was covering for Ali and did old tracks instead of the current release. Went easy on the squats as had the race tomorrow. Of course, the only reason for attending this class the day before a race is the social side.

Sunday 25th May
Competed in the Pewsey 10k today. Did the event last year 4 weeks after FLM with a bad cold, so did not perform as well as I could have done, but remember thinking the course was just nicely undulating, no major hills. My time last year was 52 minutes so I was confident I would beat that.

When I arrived I was surprised to see so few people I knew from Swindon. I think that took the edge off it a bit, I never enjoy it as much when I'm there on my own and there is no one to encourage or support me. In the race I took care not to go off too quickly and passed the first kilometre marker in 4 1/2 minutes. Good enough.

I felt pretty rough for the next 5k, my legs were sore (from pump or the massage) and my lower back was aching. I hit my straps at about 6k, started to feel good and pick off a few people, breathing hard but nice and regular. When I hit 9k at 43 minutes a sub 48 minute time was on the cards, but I had a rotten last kilometre. My breathing was terrible and I was all over the place. My official time was 48:17 so I obviously slowed down at the end. Went away feeling slightly disconsolate, but reminded myself that if I'm going away from a 10k unhappy with that sort of time then I've come a hell of a long way.

As I write the next day I'm not at all sore in my legs which tells me I didn't try as hard as I might have done.

Took away some of the superb home-made cakes and celebrated with those - and a few beers - watching England bounce back in the test match. My day could have been a lot worse.

Monday 26th May
Was hoping to go to Bath today to watch a county cricket fixture but our wonderful bank holiday weather put paid to that. Instead, went to the gym, did 4k on the treadmill and then James 1 hour RPM class. Can't remember the last time I came out of a class sweating that much, and was thinking this kind of session might be just the thing if I want to shed that last half a stone or so. It really was a quality session.

Was hoping to do another half hour on the treadmill, watching the cricket before the lunch break
but all the TVs had failed in the gym so that put paid to that idea.

I won't get much training done for the rest of this week, as I travel up to Birmingham tomorrow and fly to Germany at the crack of dawn Wednesday for a business trip. By the time I get back Thursday I doubt I'll have time to train, so it looks like I will need to train hard Friday and Saturday to sweat out all the beer, and then jog the Fairford 10k on Sunday. When I get back it's time to start building up to Berlin in September.