END OF YEAR HIGH
I thought my self indulgent ramblings were done for this year until yesterday's training run shaped itself in to an unexpected course best. A cynical overview would point to me being rather easily pleased by my own exploits here, but when there's been nowt much to shout about for a long period of time, getting a little giddy about a decent run cannot be harmful when it's warranted. After a couple of weeks feeling flat, a bit of zing has been slowly returning this last week. But the speed and strength felt in this particular little outing took me by a very satisfying surprise.
Running from the workplace, a four mile time trial has evolved which Lord Fish and I like to have a pop at when we feel the need for a blowout. From the shop near Clitheroe Castle, this route follows the drag up to Whalley Road's highest point, then left across the quiet country lane leading to Pendle Road before dropping back in to Clitheroe. It's fast going at times, but not altogether flat with about 250 feet of rolling inclination. My previous best times were within a couple of seconds of each other, dipping just above or below the 25:30 mark. A commitment to running this route in an anti-clockwise direction is basically drawing a sword upon myself to run hard. I thought about turning left from the shop door instead and just running steady and spontaneous elsewhere around the town, but then I thought let's just see how I get on with the four miler and make it a progressive run at the very least. A mile in though and I was feeling good. Quick time check and I thought I might as well press on and see what gives. By the two mile mark I had given myself a challenge to keep my next mile split on the progressive side, but I was well up again and so it dawned on me with a mainly downhill mile to go that I could just cruise the descent now and still beat my time. This was a nice feeling and gave me the psychological boost to then attack that last mile and aim for a sub-25. It was like every speed session I've done since returning to track work was finally kicking in. After a time penalty of fiddle-faddling trying to stop my watch, I still clocked in at 24:49 which was well worth the clenched fist and a little ''yessssss'' to myself. Forty seconds knocked off and I think big Ben's best time is currently 21:09, so relatively speaking this was definitely training run of the year if nothing else.
Easily pleased perhaps, but the year ends on a bit of a high.

2016 mileage total: 1627