Were illness and stress masking fitness improvements?

Ask me tomorrow!

I had been a little concerned by the apparent tailing-off of my aerobic fitness indicator (and a couple of ‘below-par’ speed-sessions), but having been under the weather a bit for a week and then seeing a possible first sign of a new step-change, I’m more encouraged. Tonight’s MWL Div 1. 7-mile relegation battle may indicate if this is a statistical blip or not.








In any case, I intend to continue my recent practice of setting off steady and finishing strong as it does make for a more enjoyable experience. If it's not enjoyable, then there's not much point doing it!

Hopefully tomorrow, I will be able to report a great escape for NHRR after the battle of St Albans!

The road is long, with many a winding turn

11.6 miles on a warm, humid and breezy morning

Runs over 10 miles are still proving quite a challenge, but as it will do me good in the long term, I need to stick with them. Is it just me, but I can't remember the last run I did when it wasn't windy?!

Now, I'll have a mini-taper into Thursday's 7-mile MWL finale in St Albans.

The patient is in a stable condition

Base-fitness levels out in June as mileage does likewise

So, today marks 6-weeks since I started running again. How am I doing?


My base-fitness and recent speed sessions leave me concluding that my current 10k form would be about 39:40. One session had me thinking more like 39:00, but that was just a good night or an indicator of improvements to come. Mileage has averaged about 25 miles/week through June, so a 30 sec improvement in 10k form since Welwyn MWL at the start of the month is not too bad. In any case, I don't want (nor feel able) to push the mileage up yet. I think when I can manage consistent 30-mile weeks, another step up will result. I've been feeling a bit off colour for the last week or so, which might explain the dip at the end of the graph.

Resistance is futile...

... give in, it's the journey, not the destination that counts

This would suggest that the notion of being 'lost' during the journey is unfairly pejorative. The condition simply introduces more unpredictable, rather than necessarily less favourable outcomes. Running should be like this sometimes.


Whilst travelling through a black hole in my own universe, I managed to watch a good deal of the "Star Trek Voyager" series. The final episode seemed like a bit of an anti-climax at the time. This may have been more down to poor script-writing than anything deliberately profound, but either way, it did indicate that the end of the story is not always the point of the story.


Seven of Nine - no resistance required!

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"Oh Pete, I so look forward to your insightful, intellingent and entertaining musings - please keep it up. P.S. - you're gorgeous!"



Jenny from Basingstoke

Best training session of the 'new era' so far

I'm starting to feel like a runner again

Just a shade under 5 weeks since I started again, this really felt like the first session where I was back in control of my running. All 6x 1000m reps were run at a fairly even '5k' pace (allowing for the fact that alternate reps were predominantly up/down hill) and at no time was I left straining or feeling the need to slow down.

The average mile-pace across all 6x reps was 5:54. On this kind of session, I've found it possible to achieve a mile-pace of around 6-10s/mile better than actual 5k race-pace. This would translate to a 5k race time between around 18:40 to 18:50 and a 10k time around 39:00 to 39:20. If true, this would represent another big step up in fitness since the Welwyn MWL 10k. Having said that, I've never done this session over this route before, so have no historic comparisons of training to race-pace.

I'd like to trust my instincts on this occasion, as this session felt so much better than any other over the last month.

First real long run of the Lazarian epoch!

Double digit tester leaves me kn***ered all week-end

10.5 miles? Pah, I used to knock this kind of thing out just for fun, but this one felt like 20 miles! Just goes to prove that my endurance capacity is still rather low, but a few more of these should put me in much better shape.

Aerobic base continues steady improvement

Nice reward for 3 weeks of effort



Click on image to enlarge

Welwyn Midweek League 10k

The results are in...

* Yes, I DID enjoy it!
* I stuck to the plan – steady start, pick up effort from 6k, finish strong
* Average HR only 166 vs typical 170 for me in a 10k, which reflects the restrained start.
* Time = 40:15, 2 minutes quicker than 2 weeks ago at Bishops Stortford
* Mile-pace quicker (only just!) than in Rotterdam Marathon in April 2010!

All-in-all, a nice evening out and a pretty good time considering I’ve only been back running for just over 3 weeks. In 2007 it took me 7 months to get from 42m to 40m for 10k, so it certainly does seem true that lost fitness is easier to recover than create in the first place.

I shall adopt the same conservative race-approach for the final MWL race and it will be interesting to see what another 3-weeks of training does to my fitness.

Unfortunately, the team results leave us in danger of relegation :’-(. I don’t think we are much weaker (if at all) than last year, it’s just that FVS have improved a bit and Barnet have decided to take the MWL seriously for a change!

I urge all Squirrels to make every effort to make it to the final MWL in St Albans on 30th June, as very small changes in attandance can have dramatic effects on results!! In the men's race last night, we were only 4 race-places (spread across all 12 scorers) behind FVS! If this had been reversed, we would now have same league pts as FVS rather than 2 fewer.

How it is (what might have been in parenthesis)

1. GCR.....34
2. SAS.....31
3. BAD.....18
4. FVS.....18 (17)
__________________________ the line of relegation-doom!
5. NHRR...16 (17)
6. BS ........9

Unfortunately, we are way behind both FVS and B&D in place-points overall, so would need to make a net gain of 3 league pts over one of them them in the final race. A tall order, but not impossible if we turn out in full-force.

I am doing a 10k race tommorrow...

... and I intend to enjoy it!

Well, it would be a waste of an evening otherwise wouldn't it?

I can guarantee that I will not;

* set a new PB
* set a new Club Record
* win any awards
* finish near the front of the field

I will give a measured performance and hopefully surprise myself a little. I am getting fitter every week and this race will be an expression of how good it feels to be back running again and being with friends.

Long live Lazarus!