Cross Country Frost Bite!

Well not quite, but it was -6 on Sunday for the Three counties cross country race 3. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! If I was not the secretary, trust me, I would have thought twice!!

Weekend so far:

Vo2 max test on Saturday morning – short(ish) but tough, rock till you drop kinda thing! I’m sure coach called it a murder session or something!!

1.5 hr Turbo (due to ice and stuff) consisting of a DOUBLE sufferfest – Downward spiral + Revolver (with the recovery warm down / up in between them cut out!) OUCH!

So I started this race on Sunday knowing a few things:

·        This would NOT be pretty!

·        This would not be a PB

·        This would not be fast

·        My sprint finish may just desert me again due to tired legs!

THE RACE:

Due to a misunderstanding, I accidentally found myself at the FRONT of the pack at the line up!! How on earth did that happen!! Not for long!! I set off at my own pace, focussing on my own race. This was fun, right!? Hehehehe Even the grass was frozen it was that cold! Some kind man had been round the course painting all the sticky up tree roots in the woods bright orange, aaaaahh how nice!! The lap consists of a long up, then a long down, flat, then repeat all the above! The first time up the hill, if felt like every man and his mate passed me. I resisted the urge to look at the garmin, resisted the urge to chase everyone, and kept at my own pace, my own race. Through the woods, I was focussing intensely on my footing. It felt like there was no pizzazz in my little old legs at all. That’s ok, I expected that, I was still doing my best on tired legs, so I was happy.

Lap 2, up the hill, through the woods, I must have taken my eye off the ball here because I tripped on one of those bright orange tree roots and went flying! I landed with an almighty thump, and down on top of me came the man that had been directly behind me! Ooops! We both leapt to our feet and simultaneously asked ‘are you ok’?!! No time to check for injuries, off I set again, trying to compensate for lost time. I had been chasing a club mate that I had managed to keep in my sights, but the trip put her well out of sight now. Oh well. Still, my race. I focussed more so now on the posture, all the things coach goes on about at training; I know I slump when I am tired, so I concentrated. Not far now. I reach the open grassy run up to the finish and PRAY that I have no one behind because the legs just WON’T sprint today I don’t think. Reports from the spectators were that there was no threat from behind – phew!! As I reached the tape for the finish, I see a flash of green (the dreaded local enemy WDAC!) in the corner of my eye! Its not far I think, small sprint... I made it! Then I looked and said ‘Oh, youre a man, for goodness sake, I needn’t have done that then!’ He smiled, I smiled, job done. Then I realised I had pulled out a 3.5 minute pb!!

So, I finished the run today knowing a few more things:

·        I am a better runner than I think

·        The training is going well

·        I CAN run well, even on tired legs

·        Ignore the data in future, because I can probably run faster than my head would have me believe!

·        This WAS a PB

·        This was a faster run than I thought possible!

Me happy, both coaches well happy, job done!!