Christmas week!
Monday – Just ticking over with some new runners, 1 lap of the lake (2.4 miles) @ a very sociable pace of 11:45
Tuesday – 10k loop with 4 hill efforts, 3 new runners came to the club and we put on various groups so they could try us out, they all said they would come back! I ran with Jo Howe (who had some very pretty nice new shoes) and we did the 10k in 51:30.
Wednesday – steady 3.5 miles off road at Fenwick, lovely conditions and spotted some deer.
Thursday – came up with a plan to enable me to run the Barnsley Parkrun on Christmas day, just made it in time (so about 100m warm up) and met a familiar face from Doncaster, Heather Marsh.
Started about 5 rows back not really intending to race it but as I gradually pass people found myself in about 4th place at the start of lap 2. Chucked my Christmas jumper off and dug in, moved up to 2nd place at the start of the 3rd lap, thought no chance of catching the leader who had 20 to 30m on me. Its a down hill finish and I was being chased by 3rd place so accelerated hard and with 5m to go got level with the winner, who then noticed me and responded. We both got 18:53 which was a 39 second PB on the course for me.
1) 1m – 6:22(6:22/m) 163/176bpm 109cal
2) 1m – 6:20(6:20/m) 162/167bpm 102cal
3) 1m – 6:10(6:10/m) 166/199bpm 111cal
At the finish I thanked all the volunteers who had given up their Christmas Morning and I waited for Heather to finish. As we were chatting some more familiar faces from Doncaster appeared, Simon and Cameron Hunter. Thoroughly enjoyable run. And I got to try out my Christmas Present:
I will never have an excuse for forgetting my bar code again.
Friday – We had planned a head lamp run with Doncaster AC / Pacers at Sandall Beat. It started raining a couple of hours before and we did not think anyone would turn up but they did and we had a great sociable run in the rain. It started snowing an hour later.
Saturday part 1 – Jono invited me to join him on a long run before the Doncaster parkrun, Tom also joined us. We ran in off road shoes from Sandall Park to Barnby Dun and back on the fresh snow. We got back with about 3 minutes to spare before the parkrun started. Check out the mile splits, getting faster through the run apart from the last bit.
1) 1m – 7:46(7:46/m) 133/145bpm 91cal
2) 1m – 7:26(7:26/m) 138/152bpm 92cal
3) 1m – 7:14(7:14/m) 141/154bpm 101cal
4) 1m – 7:12(7:12/m) 141/150bpm 100cal
5) 1m – 6:57(6:57/m) 148/153bpm 107cal
6) 1m – 6:50(6:50/m) 152/155bpm 109cal
7) 0.66m – 4:49(7:21/m) 151/156bpm 74cal
Saturday part 2 – parkrun, nicely warmed up. Quite tough running on the snow / muddy grass and in places slippery paths.
1) 1m – 6:27(6:27/m) 155/162bpm 102cal
2) 1m – 6:33(6:33/m) 160/164bpm 109cal
3) 1m – 6:41(6:41/m) 160/164bpm 111cal
4) 0.05m – 18(6:39/m) 157/158bpm 4cal
1st, 2nd and 3rd for Tom, Jono and myself after our warm up, Tom had not run the parkrun before and he won it comfortably. At the finish I helped out recording people with missing bar codes. Got to recognize the work all the volunteers put in what ever the weather and we are all very thankful. What did we use to do before Saturday parkrun?
Sunday – I wanted to do a long run, perhaps 13 or 16 miles but the snow had turned to ice and the only way to run safety in my opinion is on grass and off road so ran around Sandall Beat Woods, Cantley Park, Racecourse and Town Fields. 10 Miles @7:16 pace. Tough running in snow. The only slips I had were when I had to hit the tarmac.