23/01/15 - Buchlyvie 10k

I was going into this race slightly blind as to what my current fitness levels were.  I haven't done a 10k since last October and I have not even done a park run since Christmas day.  Nevertheless apart from the week between Christmas and new year where I caught a wee bug. My training has been going better. I have been getting out between 2 and 4 times a week.  I was thinking sub hour might be a possibility but after speaking to folk at the registration bit they did say it was muddy so I thought I would be over that.

So on to the race.  The start was a bit bunched. It starts behind a primary school and everyone is trying to squeeze into a narrwow path, made worse by people trying to avoid puddles so you couldn't get going until you get out on the road. The first kilometre is downhill on the road before turning right onto the forest track which continues on for 4 kilometres.  The first time I saw a kilometre marker it was 2km, which was a nice surprise. The forest track which although there was lots of puddles it was quite easy to avoid them by going to down the centre of the road.  When I got to the 5k turnaround I was surprised at how good I was feeling and on the way back I gradually picked people off.

Up until 9 km I was still feeling good and I made a strong effort up the hill in the 10th km to finish off.  Looked at the time and it was 59.13!  5 minutes quicker than my fastest time last year for 10k and felt loads better.  Sometimes you don't realise you are progressing but this was one of those moments that I can see it clearly.  It was actually 59.00 chip time.

I wouldn't say this race is the most scenic but it was nice to be out in the open countryside and because there is only the one hill it does make a pretty fast course.  It is well organised and had a nice atmosphere. I would like to do it again at one stage.

Next stop is this time next month at the first Glentress trail 10k.  I expect it to be a bit tougher than today.

2016 plans

Last year I did pretty much what I set out to do: some 10ks and lots of 5ks.  It worked to an extent but I never really got that motivation to do the mid week runs, really until November, December.  The turning point was really my decision to run another marathon, this made me want to get out more. So my main goal this year is the Kielder marathon in October.  This is not a fast course anyway but the goal would be to run it all with no walking.  It may seem not ambitious to some but out of the 3 marathons I have done, even with proper training programs, I have never managed to achieve this. In 2004, I did London and only got to 14 miles, then got cramp and had to run walk the rest. In 2009 Loch ness I ran 22 miles, then run/walked the rest. In 2010, Lochaber which is my PB I ran about 18 miles then ran walked the rest. In order to build up to this I have decided to go back to my old system which worked so well between 2009 - 2011 and do a race a month as follows:

January: Buchlyvie 10k
Feburary: Glentress 10k
March: Alloa Half
April: Balfron 10k
May: Edinburgh Half
June: Killlearn 10k
July: I have no idea yet
August: Dunoon Half marathon
September: Kippen trail race (maybe)
October: Kielder Marathon
November/December: Hopefully cross countries!

I don't really know how park run is going to fit in yet.  Maybe fit it in to long runs or just take them easy. But clearly I will need to focus on building up the long runs at weekends.