… out of pure curiosity, I dug up Logie Baird, and I asked him what petrified forests see to make them all so scared…

A few harder workouts this week that culminated in the Standish Hall Trail race near Wigan. This is part of our club Multi Terrain championship - we select 15 races and you best 5 results count. Although I felt in great shape for the marathon and fingers crossed I’ve recovered well, I felt there was a lack of quality in my training.

I’ve decided to up the times on my ‘steady’ runs from 7’s to 6:45’s. I’ll still warm up etc. but the majority of the steady runs will be at this pace. Martin and James form PLS were racing in the final track event for the Wirral AC Endurance series, I didn’t feel ready for a blast on the track so didn’t go, they both done really well, with James finishing 1st and Martin 2nd. I ran a decent pace for the interval session Tuesday, worked hard in a circuit session on Wednesday and ran a 5k tempo on Thursday at 5:56 average that felt really comfortable.

I went down the club on Thursday night just for a few miles and ended up doing 9 around the Woolton Hills. I was knackered Friday so had a rest then Saturday made the short journey North for the Standish Hall Trail. It’s the first time I’ve done this race which takes part in February and October each year. The distance is around 10k and usual has a decent field.

The weather was perfect and course itself wasn’t too tough, raced around farmers fields, a wood and trail paths. One section that you crossed twice was muddy but because of the dry weather, everywhere else was pretty quick. I started off steady then picked off a few runners and found myself 11th at the halfway point. I tried to haul the lad back infront and was very close to him before a really muddy section but he pulled away and beat me by 27 seconds. I was 1st home for PLS so claimed the maximum 50 points in the MT series. All in all it was great work out and not a bad time on terrain I used to struggle on.

I had a rest on the Sunday, more because I’d had a few too many drinks watching Jessie J at Liverpool University with about 2000 screaming teenage girls, it’s the wife’s fault! Cross Country starts this Sunday, I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. The 1st race is our ‘home’ fixture, luckily no pop acts are in the area this week ?

Training from 17/10/2011 to 23/10/2011

Monday 7 miles - 6 of 'em brisk! 7:46 1st mile - 39:47 for the 6 7
Tuesday pyramids 2min 3min 4min 5min 4min 3min 2min just over 4.03 miles - warmup/down - pm stretching/easy circuits with PLS 8
Wednesday 7 miles - 6 of 'em quick around Bate Mill am - pm hard circuit class with run 10
Thursday 5k tempo 18:26 with warm up/down am – 9 miles hills with PLS in pm 14
Friday REST
Saturday Standish Hall MT with warm up/down 8
Sunday REST
Total 47