A week of highs and lows! I had a rubbish medium-long on Tuesday, where I felt slow and my HR was elevated compared to what the effort felt like. However the next day I blasted out a solid intervals session (my first speedwork in months) the fastest I’ve ever done that workout. Then I had my first swimming lesson since primary school on Thursday, leaving my calves so tight I could barely stand up straight!
Overall probably not great preparation for the Worthing HM, especially as I didn’t have a great few days leading up to the race. My dad, who is recovering from a major operation, took a bit of a dip with some kind of blood infection, so had bit of a stressful time running him around for tests etc before I headed down south. I felt quite tired on Saturday, and my head wasn’t really in the zone, so I had pretty much written off the race as an MP session.
However I woke up after a really good nights sleep feeling positive, and the wind didn’t feel as bad as the forecast suggested on my warm-up, so after a bit of encouragement from a friend on the start line, I figured I’d go for it. You can read the full race report here, but in short I set off at 84ish HM pace, felt really good all the way around, and finished strongly with a 6:13 13th mile and a 5:33/mi final 0.1, despite being in to the wind at that point. I crossed the line in 83:31, which is a nearly 3 minute PB.
I am over the moon with the time. Clearly all those miles I’ve put in over the past few months are working well for me! As some have suggested on Strava, I have some thinking to do about my marathon target after that..
