After last Sunday's poor 20-odd miler and aborted Tue 10k-pace session, I took both Wed and Thu as complete rest days. I managed 4 easy miles on Friday, but my legs still felt weak and I was a little light-headed. Total mileage before Sun was just 12 miles. Not the perfect build up to the final race of the Three-counties XC League on Sun 28th Feb in Bedford. However, I felt quite good in myself on Sat after a rare lie-in and also a late afternoon nap (thanks to Mrs S for facilitating these).
The weather forecast for Sunday (heavy rain and 35 mph winds) was doing nothing to make me look forward to the race any more. Nor was news from Bedford Harriers that the riverside course was very soggy! The good news was that the course was flat and had been cut down to under 4 miles due to flooding.
I was surprised to discover that flat 3.8-mile race can be lot harder than you think when conditions underfoot are bad enough. On one of several stream crossings, I ended up flat on my face, which apparantly looked very impressive from behind!
The silver lining: Statto (in black) about to move past a regular rival from Ampthill & Flitwick on his way to a best ever XC league race finish of 11th and 3rd MV40 prize over the 5 races.
This was a good performance considering the poor lead-up. I also ran well enough to suggest my very easy week will help put my training blip behind me. I’m certainly feeling more positive again.
