The Power of the Personal Best

I'm 40...

According to the books I should be slowing down...

Bugger that!

I'm not entirely sure where my sudden spurt of pace has come from, but its kept coming...

I've, in 10 days, taken over 2 and a half minutes out of a PB for 5 miles that has stood for 2 years... That would be enough to make my running this year a success!

In one run I slayed a 5km pm that again has stood for 2 years, taking almost 2 and a half minutes out of it... That's dream land territory

If it was all the short stuff I'd be worried as I'm not in this for the sprint, I'm in this for the marathons... A truism and a reality for me...

But I also took 6 minutes out of my 25km PB, not a distance I run often but still a massive improvement over the previous run which was in the build up to the Liverpool Marathon.

So what?

Running for me is a lot, an awful lot, about confidence... The demons of school telling me I'm slow, I shouldn't run, are still on my shoulders even now.  I ran the 5km start to finish at pace, I ran the 5 milers with the last km being the fastest (going as fast as my 5km pace in places), apart from 1 km (in 3 chunks - the muddy 500m, and the 2 x 250m fiddling with my hip pockets to get the gels out) I ran 25km.

So those demons are quietened down, for now... The hard miles are working, the strength work in the gym is working, the sports massages are working (painful but it all seems to be working)...

So my objectives - keep the demons at bay, keep the miles going... My odd combination of events means I've got to find time to put hills in as well as pace... Which was the potter around the West Pennines this Friday.  Now, I need to wait for the morning, it should be a 30km run... But ice isn't entirely sensible to run on, so I'd have to hold my frustrations at bay, and go to the gym... This is a run I intend to finish, so no glory dashes!

This week is an almost pain in the ass... I've a trip to London for work (if the West Coast line is working again) on Tuesday, a course in Buxton on Thursday and a much more pleasant trip to London on Friday for a CHF Trustees meeting.  And then on Sunday is one of my favourite races the Southport MadDog 10k - will it be a PB, I don't know, I do know I'll try...

TTFN


Paul


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