Pete W's Marathon Blog 2009-12 by Petecw29

A wet and windy day today starting with a lunchtime run with Maris, where we did the usual 4.1 mile route. The first mile as usual was up the hill and today it was into the wind and driving rain all the way.

We went through the first mile in 9:53 and after we finished off the hill and turned down we picked up our pace to reach the two mile mark in 18:24 for an 8:21 mile. We continued to push the pace and reached 5k in 26:27 with a sub 8 minute mile. We pushed on for the last mile in 7:56 to finish with 34:23 for 8:23 pace. The 5k after the first mile uphill was 24:30 for 7:54 pace.

Tonight at the Club I was joined by Maggie and Darren for a session of 1000m downhill intervals at speed. I did some runs up and down the hill at the club before the others arrived and then we ran out for just under 2 miles to the start of the session. On the first one I set Maggie off first then 30s later set Darren off and I followed after a further 10s. I caught Maggie before the end but didn’t catch Darren as I finished in 4:08 for 6:32 pace.

We then ran back up easy as a recovery but I’d made Maggie take a longer break and run up after as she was doing two efforts to our three. I again set Darren off 10s ahead of me and started to chase him down the hill. I slowly gained on him and then passed him in the last 300m to finish in 3:54 for 6:10 pace.

Maggie ran back up and did her second fast effort as we ran back up for our third effort. Darren again went off 10s ahead and I set off after him. About half way down I realised my lace was flapping around and I knew I couldn’t stop so kept pushing and passed Darren again but he came back at me at the end and finished a metre ahead. I finished in 3:50 for 6:05 pace. Darren had run 4:07, 4:07 and 4:01 for a great session.

We ran back and I finished with 7.03 miles in 67 minutes and recorded my fourth run of the week.  It’s another double day tomorrow for me, then an easy run Friday, rest Saturday and the Great North West Half Marathon in Blackpool on Sunday.

Happy running!