During this time my training has been all over the place from 66 miles to 23 miles in each week.

Snake Lane 10 – 22 February 2015

Arrived nice and early with Chris, Rose and Liz.  Did about 3 miles warming up checking out the start and finish areas and although it was breezy it did not look very bad.

Set off hard and the first half was great, fresh legs, wind behind us, nice and undulating.  I was well on target to go sub 60 which was the main aim.

From mile 5 to the end was into the wind and it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  Pace remained on target until mile 8 where the wind and small climbs started to hurt a lot.  Realised by mile 8 that a sub 60 was unlikely but I was still on for a big PB.  Dug in as hard as I could for the last mile to try to get on Doncaster Athletic Club all time top 10, for 10 miles.  To do this I had to go under 1:00:30 and I was delighted to get a chip time of 1:00:14

1) 1m – 5:50(5:50/m) 160/180bpm 18cal
2) 1m – 5:46(5:46/m) 184/214bpm 18cal
3) 1m – 5:46(5:46/m) 171/189bpm 70cal
4) 1m – 6:05(6:05/m) 168/172bpm 106cal
5) 1m – 5:53(5:53/m) 166/175bpm 101cal
6) 1m – 5:59(5:59/m) 166/169bpm 103cal
7) 1m – 6:00(6:00/m) 166/169bpm 103cal
8) 1m – 6:24(6:24/m) 165/168bpm 108cal
9) 1m – 6:18(6:18/m) 165/167bpm 107cal
10) 1m – 6:07(6:07/m) 166/169bpm 104cal
11) 0.03m – 10(5:52/m) 169/170bpm 2cal

Norton 9 – 1 March 2015

I have been doing some training with the sub 3:20 marathon training team from DAC, we decided to run 8 miles before the race, then race the 9 miles, and then do a warm down.  It was windy as hell making some of the worse conditions I have ever raced in, people were getting blown off the road and my glasses were getting blown off my face.

The race went well, I ran the first half with James Smith who insisted I run my own race, but I did not get much past him.

I ended up with a PB on the course and as usual Askern DRC put on a great race.

Ian Roberts Fell Race – 8 March 2015

I had never done a fell race before,  I noticed on facebook Dave Camm posted that he was doing this race and I had a free weekend as I had left it too late to enter the Retford Half Marathon.  I asked about for what kit I needed and I got some cheap gear from Go Outdoors which would have met the FRA requirements if I had been checked.

We met at the village of Marsden cricket ground and I warmed up on the cricket pitch.  I then followed up the runners to the start up a massive climb, what a view with hills and reservoirs and a beautiful village to look down on.  Dean Watson arrived 1 minute before the start having got lost on the journey with Dave Camm.

The first 0.5 miles was down a track / road, this should have been easy but I could feel fatigue in my legs almost from the start.  Down the first short technical descent and over a small footbridge, then on to the first fairly minor climb.  Not feeling good at all and people passing me.  At about 2 miles I fell down for the first of many times, no idea why.  Anyway on to the major climb which was mainly walking and down the other side, starting to pick up the pace a bit so falling down is becoming a regular occurrence and I lost my right show.  I could not do my shoes up tight as my right foot was swollen and had been for a few days.  The last mile got really technical and I was forced to really slow down as I could not stay on my feet.

Dean Watson finished in second place and we waited for Dave Camm to finish, and then off to the race HQ to eat cake.

I finished in 29th place, with a time of 59:26.  The winning time was 48:30, I had a rubbish race but they can not all go well.

Gainsborough 10k – 15 March 2015

This was my 12th race of the year (coming off a very busy 2014), I have raced every weekend of the year and I have given 100% at all of them apart from the Brass Monkey Half.

I had a slight ankle strain from the fell race so I worked on fixing that all week and I had a stiff neck on Friday which had cleared up by Sunday.  The ankle is still a bit sore.

I was unsure of how I was feeling until we did the warm up and I decided I felt ok and should go for it.  From about  half a mile I was running with Natalie Burns from Lincoln Wellington and we pushed each other all the way to the finish.  Conditions were good with a bit of wind.  As is often the case, I miss calculated the pace I needed to hit to run a PB and until we got to about a mile to the finish I thought I had blown it but then I realised I was on for a good PB.  I was delighted to go under 36 minutes for the first time!

1) 1m – 5:35(5:35/m) 166/180bpm 49cal
2) 1m – 5:53(5:53/m) 167/174bpm 101cal
3) 1m – 5:42(5:42/m) 168/171bpm 99cal
4) 1m – 5:50(5:50/m) 169/172bpm 102cal
5) 1m – 5:52(5:52/m) 169/171bpm 102cal
6) 1m – 5:55(5:55/m) 170/172bpm 104cal
7) 0.23m – 1:11(5:16/m) 171/174bpm 20cal

This was a special day for Doncaster AC with over 60 of our athletes waring their vests proudly, as men club captain this was very exciting to see and I know it also was important for lots of our members.  The club won lots of prizes.