Last Nights Bridge Inn 5km

Well the race has been run and I am still awaiting the official results, but that is only for the official time and not my place. I have worked out that this was my 8th race in over 2 years, which for my usual racing diary I normally do that in about 2 months in the summer. The plan was to take it steady, not to push too hard, not to blast from the start line and that is what I did.

It was cold last night, which is never great when racing especially when you are at the start line. Fortunately for the Bridge Inn the start line is quite narrow so every one is crushed in. There are no race tales to be told, only that I ran, didn’t struggle and got home with some consummate ease in a time of 18:17 (my watch). I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to my next race.

What next, apart from entering more races, is to increase my training by that I mean not to add more training sessions into my diary but to make my current training sessions gradually more intensive.

Update on Wednesday, 1 February, 2012 by Phil

Official time now in 18 mins 18, in 32nd Place out of 138

Time to race

Well I took last weekend off, I needed to I was shot after 10 consecutive days of exercise totalling 140 miles on the bike and 55 miles running. I commuted in and out of work yesterday to loosen my legs ready to race tonight.

I have decided that I need to enter a race (that I know) to judge where I am in terms of speed and fitness. So I am off to the Bridge Inn 5k tonight. I can’t remember when I last did the Bridge or even what my course PB was, but neither of those matter tonight. Tonight as I say is all about running to take stock of my progress this year, I know its going to hurt, I know at about 3.5k I will be questioning why I decided to race, but I also know that no matter what time I get back in, I have raced and I will thoroughly enjoy it, knowing that I am back running where I like to be…. in a race!!

March races are online

Races in the area can now be viewed on the March page.

My own running? Yet more disappointment:

End of November and I felt I was back in the groove. Ran a good Bridge Inn 5k, so my plan was to get fitter over December and January, do a fantastic Bridge Inn at the end of January. Then, go to Nepal in early Feb and return even stronger to embark upon a memorable 2010.

Reality: Early Dec get a cold. Prior to Christmas develop flu and chest infection. Awful Christmas. Recover somewhat, but now still not feeling right.

Now, I’m clinging to the belief I will be OK for Nepal and fingers crossed come back healthy.

No Bridge Inn for me this month. Too risky.

My favourite night out. The BI5k

My first Bridge Inn for over a year without worrying about an injury or recurring cold. I was feeling up for it, and headed out of the city on the cycle path with two friends for an evening of fun an frolics near Emersons Green.

I’ve decided to dispense with big padded “control” shoes, so wore my lighter semi-trail shoes. It was great to see all the familiar faces and jostle for the 3rd row on the start line in the dark, traffic-noise ridden, cold and windy under-the-bridge area.

Then off. Neatly skipping round the pile of horse manure, we headed out. No wind - silence. It was behind us. My theory was that it would be so bad coming back, best to make the most of it on the way out. So without increasing my cadence, I thought I’d try a relaxed longer stride.

Most of the race I was in amongst some younger people - a couple of women and one man. I don’t have the results to hand, so I can’t tell you who they were. But we were swapping places throught the whole race, which was fun - in a kind of stressful, painful, panicky kind of way, with me normally gaining on the uphill (I like uphill).

On the home straight, I was thinking “I’ve nothing left - it’s just me and the wind now”, and feeling generally miserable and pathetic; that final undulating stretch is a tough way to end. But then I heard some feet pounding up behind me and this was what I needed: I couldn’t let it go, so I lengthened my stride and went for it, held the pounding feet at bay, and overtook the youngster, who I thought I’d lost.

I finished 21st out of 130 runners (a good turnout) in 18:34. Everyone was saying the wind could account for up to 40 seconds of time, so that would put me within reach of my 17:46 pb. Having only just started to get running again, that is pretty exciting.

I came away with 4 cans of lager for 3rd V45, and both my friends won more in the raffle. All in all, it’s been a productive few days, what with the £10 reward in the Mike Sully Mob match on Sunday!

Bridge Inn 5k

Tonight saw the last Bridge Inn 5k for 2009 and so to honour this the wind decided to throw in its ‘tupence’ worth. I arrived as normal with less than 30 mins to go, the usual crowd were there. But as I started my warm up I realised that there were a few good runners in the pack as well.

Parking isn’t great for the Bridge Inn and I was parked a little way up the road from race HQ as I walked over the Bridge to the HQ the bridge was shaking by the force of the wind.

On my warm up I have to admit I was not sure how to race given the course is an out and back course. first half is with the wind the second against the wind, do I go out hard and try to match front guys or do I save my energy for the second half of the race against the wind, that’s where experience comes in and I am still very much on the learning curve.

Well the gun went off and as usual I went off with a quick start, but I soon tapered that off by the 1/2 k mark and very quickly settled into my own race, as usual I seemed to end up racing by myself, about 10m in front of me were  two runners, I used them to pull me through especially the very windy sections. By the last half K they had split but I still had one runner in front of me (Ben Morley) and I started to realise that with each stride I was gaining on him and soon made up the 10m and with 200m to go I past him, Ben seemed to respond and with 50m to go I felt I had to put one last push in and opened up my legs and finished 3 seconds in front.

The provisional results showed I came home in seventh place in a poor time of 17:13 (my worst of the year). My races over the past couple of weeks have been hard in different ways, but I have to be pleased, but still disappointed, in hind sight I should have run harder.

Something I will use in my next race which will be next year now, with the imminent arrival of baby number 2, I need to be around and support Emma as best I can that means not being out for three to four hours whilst racing. This doesn’t mean I won’t be running it just means that I will be training as best as I can (probably harder) and use this break in racing to build on my progress this year.

I will be pulling together a training schedule for the next three months and will post it on this blog and report my progress against it.