For athletes at my level (typical club runners), I am a strong believer in to get race fit, you need to race often and this was my 5th race in 5 weeks.  You need to recover well so do your recovery runs 90 seconds to 2 minutes slower than your race pace (and no longer than 6 miles).  Do two hard training sessions a week, one of intervals and one of a tempo run.  That’s how we structure our club runs at Doncaster AC.  Eat well and drink wine.

On 7 February I decided to compete at the English Institute of Sport (EIS), Sheffield.  I have never run on an indoor track before, they are 200m long and have banked curves and short straights.  This was a full track and field meeting so lots going on.  The 3000m was scheduled to start at 19:15, unfortunately it was delayed until 20:15.

I travelled with Chris Moran (who was kind enough to drive) and we met up with Richard Hayes (Penistone Footpath Runners & AC) who told us about the venue and race, we warmed up together and the 3 of us were expecting to run similar times in the race.

I have had a few niggles this year which Eddie Fletcher has been helping me with.  I had a sore right hamstring in the days building up to this race, but this race seems to have sorted it out.

We had no idea how many people were doing the 3000m until we lined up, about 13 men were at the start and they all looked quick.

Because we were running indoors garmins would be useless so I just used a stop watch, I wanted 10 minutes which is 15, 40 second laps.  I went through lap 1 in 37 seconds and that was only time I looked at my watch.  The race was relentless, I had never run so fast for so long, after 2 minutes it was a case of hanging on and trying to maintain the pace, the track is “enjoyable” to run on but the air conditioning makes the air very dry and this causes the mouth and throat to feel dry.

I ran a PB for 1500m twice and a PB for the mile.  I also ran a 30 second PB for 3000m finishing with a time of 9:59! I could not keep up with Chris or Richard who finished 5 or 6 seconds faster than me.  I got lapped on about 7 and a half laps and I finished in 10th place.  The winning time was 8:51.  My pace for the 3000m averaged out at 5:21 minute miles.

So that’s 6 PB’s in sequential races, Barnsley 10k, Edwinstow 10k (off road, second running on this course), Yorkshire Cross Country Championships (done the same course 4 times), Brass Monkey Half Marathon, Ferriby 10 Mile and 3000m on the track.  I am delighted with the way my racing is going and hope to carry it through to the London Marathon.