Saturday, December 29, 2007

A little bit of history

A few weeks ago my friend alerted me to the fact that no-one had ever won the Hyde Park Time Trial twice, since it was set up at the start of October. We have one win each, and tend to compete against each other quite intensely, so the race was on. She was heading to Hawaii for Christmas, and I was in Spain, but I was back first, and would have the first opportunity to make a challenge.

But first, the anxious wait. There were two events while I was away, and I looked at the results each week to check that no-one had managed a second win. I noticed that in either week I'd have won the race (assuming I ran at roughly the same speed as I usually do), but was relieved that the two winners were both first time winners.

So I got back on Thursday, and the chance was there for me to take glory. Other people have, and will in the future, run the TT faster than I have (or am every likely to achieve). But no-one else can be first to do something, and I wanted to get my name against the "first person to win it twice" line.

I took it surprisingly seriously - laying off the wine for what feels like the first time in weeks last night, and deciding on a shorter warm up than my normal 5 mile jog to the start, so I had a bit more energy. It even worked out that I had a rest day on Friday for ultra-freshness!

I got to the start with one aim in mind. Not a PB, but a win. But then I started to worry. Although the field overall was small, I realised that some of the people there looked pretty nifty and, in particular, that the word was spreading about the lack of multiple wins, and that there was at least one other former winner there talking to her friend about the possibility of her being the first to do it. I keep on forgetting that they were probably looking at me and thinking exactly the same thing!

Then the start. Unusually I was right at the front, and the first woman to really get going. In the first 500metres or so one of the other former winners went past me, and I started to worry because I didn't know how fast she was, but she ended up sitting just 5 metres or so in front of me, and I relaxed. The two times I've run the race before I've always moved up the field in the second and third laps, as my start isn't the fastest, and I knew she was close enough to me to catch easily.

It actually happened earlier than I thought. As usual it was on the slight hill up one side of the park. I was right on her heels, then alongside her, and by the time we got to the 2k marker I was starting to open up a bit of a gap. And from there it just continued to open. It was a bit hard to know how to pace it here - should I hammer it to put her out of sight, aim to get a big PB but risk fading, or should I just play it safe and take it steady-ish unless she started to close the gap. Steady-ish in this context is still pretty fast, it's just not top speed.

In the end I did slow a bit on the second and third laps, but still went fast enough to take about 20 seconds off my PB and get it down to 22:31 (incidentally beating Eleanor's fastest time on the course - even though I'd beaten her the only time we both raced, her fastest time was faster than my fastest). And of course, more importantly I got that win.

It was a real confidence boost. It proved to me that my first win wasn't a fluke, and it reminded me that I CAN run. It also reinforced that I can set myself tough sounding goals and then deliver on them. I turned up to a race with the intention of winning it, and that's precisely what I did.

It also gave me a bit of an opportunity to play with my Garmin. I like all the feedback I get off it when I get back to the computer, but I'm still fiddling around with it to get it how I like it when it's on my wrist. I guess I'm just used to how the Polar operates, which button I need to press etc, so it's just getting used to the new system.

Friday, December 28, 2007

New Toy

It was always going to happen eventually. I got a Garmin.

My Polar has done well, but the footpod has got very temperamental. Then I got the low battery indicator on the wrist unit. And I saw a decently priced 305 in the sales. Which was less than the christmas money I got from my grandparents.

It would have been stupid to resist. I can download the RW training schedule onto it, and I will have no excuse for failing to go under 3:45. Or that's the plan.

Now I've just got to log the miles into it...

Thursday, December 13, 2007

And Onwards...

Yes, I'm marathon training again. I got a place for London! The one I watched on tv to start off this mad idea that I'd like to run a marathon someday, but which I've never run.

I didn't get in through the main ballot, and I couldn't commit to raising enough money for a charity place, but my running club came up trumps and gave me one of their three places.

As I type, my entry form is speeding its way down to London, special delivery, and this time they can't turn me down!

Wooooooo

Hooooooo

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Placing

HPTT again today. I quite like running down, racing, then doing a bit more to cool down. It was also partly motivated by the fact that you get points for just turning up so, even with a hangover, I knew I'd be in the top 5 or so, getting 95ish points, as opposed to not turning up and getting nothing. Even if you don't race, it's worth making your long run route go via the time trial...

This time I finished third. I didn't win, some faster people turned up, but I beat Eleanor which made me happy. Of course, I have nothing against her, and it's a purely healthy rivalry, but I was worried that she's been getting faster than me so it was nice to be able to reassert my speed and my record of her never having beaten me.

The race was almost identical to last week. My time was 2 seconds faster, and it was very similar in that other people started faster, then I overtook them. I overtook one person at the end of the shorter first lap, Eleanor going up the slight hill on the first long lap. We then did pretty much a whole lap together, one going ahead then the other, and then going up the hill for the third time I opened up a gap she couldn't close. That hill is my friend, clearly, as it's where I overtook everyone last week too!

I've started to notice how consistent I am. I was impressed over summer that I did 2 10ks and had 5 seconds difference between them, now I've done 2 5ks with a 2 second gap. I have a speed, and that's how fast I run, whether I want to or not!

Tomorrow is the santa dash - a whole mile, wearing a santa suit. I want to go for a run along the canal either before the dash or after it, depending on the weather. I feel closer to grandma there - it's the same canal that she used to play on, that her family used to work, and it leads directly to the pub we're going to after the funeral on Tuesday. I'm at the other end of the canal here, but it's still her canal.

And a bit of a canal run might get me in the mood for re-starting mara training...