CARRY ON CARRYING ON
A waltz around an eery Pendle Hill in the wet clag and fading light yesterday brought something quite clear to my attention - bloody hell I am actaully in good nick at the moment! More specifically, I don't recall ever pounding through bog with such efficiency in a long, long time. It was one of those rare training runs when you just feel absolutely fantastic, invincible and wonderfully in tune with the terrain, the surroundings, the climate, mind and your body. Strong winds and nasty showers only served to make it more memorable. If it doesn't get better than that hour of high octane effort spent splashing around up there on East Lancashire's big hill last night, then at least I got there and made sure I bottled the whole experience.
Racing has dried up so far in September, partially down to the fact that the all too short period of evening races has come to an end. But also a tight calf put the skids on running hard for a week or two. Ideally I wanted to get to the final evening fell race of the year at Hades Hill near Rochdale, but I think I made the right call in sticking to the plan of boring flattish plodding until the calf strain started to go in to hiding. In fact, I seem to be making the right call on my running programme almost instinctively at the moment. How far, how fast, off road or on road, I just seem to know what I am doing. I've been running nearly twelve years - it's taken a while!
Ten days of cautious plodsville just took the edge off my form from August, but during this week in particular, I have been feeling the force again. A cracking grass circuit pyramid session on Sunday was followed on Monday by another hour's running on the rough stuff of Pendle, then a walk up Pendle on Tuesday morning with Sara and the Connie dog, returning to Pendle again on the Wednesday for last night's blow out. Pendle Hill has been my second home this week.
Selfishly, I declined the opportunity to run for the Harriers at this year's Northern Road Relays last weekend. The fact that I am in decent shape at the moment makes it perhaps even more selfish than I dutifully admit to for not putting one in for the team. But at the end of the day, what it boils down to is a real lack of interest in tarmac races these days and a fear that I would go and pick myself a niggle up and curse that horrible, contrived course around Manchester City's stadium even more than I did when running there last year. Blackburn's 'A' team did a sterling job, initially eleventh, but moved up to eighth following the disqualification of teams with second claim runners not affiliated for road running with them. A sensitive subject for some, but in my view a no-brainer. You can't go around cherry picking fast boys for second claim to bolster your squad in big competitions. It's just not fair and it doesn't happen in any other sport. I'm really pleased that the grenade has been dropped upon that sort of nonsense.
So the only race on a tarmac surface that pricks my ears right now is the Podium 5K at Barrowford. Recent news that the next one clashes with the Tour of Pendle fell race has put me in a bit of a quandary as regards what to do on the 18th of November. The two races couldn't be more different; five laps of a flat cycle track, or seventeen miles of almost every up and down that the Pendle mass has to offer. The problem is that my heart wants to do The Tour, but in current form I fancy myself in a 5K. Maybe not quite a PB, but certainly running under seventeen minutes. Seventeen miles is much, much further than any of my training runs right now and if there is a window of opportunity to run a decent 5K then I would regret not ceasing upon it. I suppose I will know which to go for nearer the time.
Another little quandary is whether or not to replace my grass reps on the park each week with a return to track sessions with the club. I'll probably give it a go in the next few weeks, but what I am doing at the moment is working and I don't want to risk upsetting the apple cart.
I keep looking out for races that I could fit in as a sharpener for the ones I have officially - at least in a mental capacity - booked in for next month's agenda. For the time being though, it's carry on doing what I am doing.