Two days to go !

Did my final training run today -  a 3 mile circuit at lunchtime along the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge to Westminster, following some intervals last night at Dulwich and another lunchtime run earlier in the week.

So, Monday is race day, and time for some targets / hopes:

1. Finish, run all the way, smile and have fun !
2. Beat last year's time in this race: 54:19 (8:46 minute miles)
3. Beat my 10k PB: 53:33 (8:38 minute miles)
4. Beat 52minutes (8:23 minute miles)
5. My brother to have a good run and beat his PB

I'm looking forward to the race - not feeling as fit as I'd like to be but I'll do my best and try to make up for my disappointing marathon time.

This week's runs bring my mileage for May to 76.2 and my total for the year to 453.06.

Running the course

I've started a new assignment at work in central London and managed to get out for a lunchtime run this week for the first time - a nice chance to run along Embankment to Tower Bridge and back, including some of the route of the BUPA London 10000 which is only 2 weeks away now.

I've also been out running at Dulwich in the evenings a couple of times lately, now that the days are longer and the park is open until 8:30pm. It's a nice way to wind down after work. This week I did ten 400metre intervals with 400 metre jogs in between. I ran the intervals at an average of around 7:50 minutes/mile pace, which if I could manage it for the whole 10k would get me around in  48minutes 34seconds. I think aiming for 52 minutes, or 8:23 minutes/mile is probably more realistic.

My training for the 10k has been going pretty well. I guess non-runners might think that having run a marathon I should be in tip-top shape to run a quarter of the distance, but it's not that simple. Marathon training is more about long slow runs and building up strength and stamina rather than speed, and I think I was probably in better shape for a 10k this time last year. However I had a good run at Greenwich today when I ran up the hill three times, for the first time in ages, and the interval training has been going well, so hopefully by race day I'll be in with a good chance of running a PB.

This week I was the happy recipient of a couple of new running shirts from CLIC Sargent and Practical Action - thanks Ceris and Michaela !

A total of 22 miles run this week, bringing my total for May to 43 miles, and for the year to 420 miles.

Intervals

Back from a very nice holiday in the Alps where we didn't do any running but did a fair amount of walking, eating and drinking.

And back to a new training plan for the BUPA London 10000 which is less than four weeks away now. Very strange to be thinking about running a short fast race, after spending the last six months thinking about running a slow long one, but that's the nature of the next challenge.

On Bank Holiday Monday I got back into the swing of things with five laps of Dulwich, followed on Thursday evening by a bit of interval training consisting of 9x400 metre "sprints" separated by slow jogging.

Intervals are a great way to improve your speed for shorter races but the attraction starts to wear off a bit as fatigue sets in towards the end. However I managed all 9 intervals at a decent pace (around 8:15 mile pace for each one) so I was quite pleased with my progress after 3 weeks off.

Today wasn't quite so satisfactory - I planned to do 6 miles in Greenwich but after about a lap and a half I felt bloated and sluggish and ground to a halt. I started running again and managed a short lap of just over a mile on the top level for a total of 4.5 miles for the two runs. Not sure why I felt so sluggish - maybe the 3 weeks off were something to do with it, or maybe I set off a little too fast, or maybe I'm just not used to running up that hill in Greenwich any more. Anyway, I'll have another go at 6 miles in Dulwich tomorrow, hopefully that will work out better.

In preparation for the BUPA 10k I wore my CLIC Sargent T-shirt for the first time. Nice to be able to show my support for the other charity I'm fundraising for this year, as I will be on race day.

My total for the year is approaching 400 miles now: 391.67 miles gone. In spite of my post-marathon holiday I'm still on schedule with the challenge.