The week had been going well and in midweek before the race I repeated my 8 x 870m reps (off 1 min) around Russell Park in Bedford. I meant to start them fairly steady as I wanted to race reasonably well on the Sunday, and also I had been feeling jaded from the 24 miles on the Sunday beforehand.
I managed a set on par with the week before, which was very positive. I ran my quickest effort at the end, but this wasn't by choice. On the penultimate effort I noticed a group of annoying teenagers at the edge of the park, and sensed they were going to give me problems.
As I was nearing the end of the session this didn't concern me too much, so as I sped past on the last effort, one of these idiots jumped in and ran alongside me for maybe 150 metres before bailing out to the amusement of his mates and the girls he was trying to impress.
As he joined me I had a total 'fight or flight' response and took off as the adrenaline pumped through me. Having done a set in the 2:34-2:38 region, I nailed this last effort in 2:31 - which I was pissed off about as I compromised my training plan for this complete and utter buffoon.
Otherwise the week was solid. I backed off a little on Saturday to give myself a chance of a decent run at Trafford, before tackling 22 miles the day after the race. Also, my foot had been slightly sore as the week wore on and I was keen not to push it too much as I knew I'd be lacing up some racing flats at Trafford, which always tests my foot.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed with my run at a drizzly Trafford as I feel in much better shape than my time of 31:54 suggests. However, I was quickly able to put this performance into perspective. Firstly, I've barely run any 10k races of late and as Trafford is a top quality field, I got dragged through the opening mile far faster than I'd have liked. The GPS told me 4:47 for mile one, so much too fast. The next was 5:01 and then I fell away quickly. I've been running for years but am clearly still able to make rookie mistakes.
I've been at marathon mileage now for weeks and any speed I own has been blunted somewhat by the miles. I'm sure you can't expect top 10k times on 36 year old legs that have been doing 100+ miles per week for weeks and well over 20 miles every Sunday.
My seven days including the 22 miles totalled 97 miles and included the session and the Trafford 10k, so I'm well pleased with five weeks until London. I feel strong and am enjoying my training.
I could not help but be impressed with Trafford. A fast rural course with a superb field (I was 29th) laid on by Dave Norman, who does everything to ensure quality up front. An excellent event and now a firm favourite on the race calendar.
Next up this week is the Reading Half this coming weekend, which I hope to have a solid run in. When I've done PBs en route to marathons in the past I've gone on to run disappointing marathons. I'm not planning on backing off too much for Reading but will certainly ease off on Friday and Saturday to give myself a good chance of a decent run to take me into the final weeks before the big one.