Entries in Mike Sully Trophy (3)

Sunday, November 22
5:38PM

Winner!

By AuthorMike | Comment1 Comment. Add yours!

Well, not at all really, but I did come away from the BMC Mike Sully / Gemma Butler event on the Downs with a £10 voucher for Easy Runner.

I arrived just in time to see the senior men’s race start and then went for a warm up in my new Nike spikes. All my enthusiasm quickly waned as I ran up hill against the wind, following the line of the race route.  But then, that’s a familar pre-race feeling, so I ignored it.

Then on to the start line for the mob match. Lots of Bristol & West vests, and Great Western Runners too. Start lines are great for friendly chatter, and I particularly liked the complaint from one person about feeling duped, because they thought it would be a “an old man’s race” and there were too many youngsters and women. Some of the seniors from the previous race had obviously not tried hard enough, because they came to join us in the mob match, only 10 minutes later.

The starter seemed impatient, “come on, don’t you lot want to do this race!” and then, before many of us knew what was happening, we were off. He’d obviously had enough of race starting in the wind and rain.

I swear I heard some of the guys from the previous race chatting as they led us off along the first straight. Cocky, eh?

Anyway, it was what it was. I managed to go slightly off route twice - quite an achievement given how well marked everything was.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take long to run 4k, so it was over without too much agony. I ran alone for pretty much the whole race, and came in 14th, taking about 15:30. I’m happy with that, given I’m just getting back into it after a very long down period. And it was more windy and slippery than last year.

But I did  have my new spikes on. It was still slippery, but I dread to think what it would have been like in anything else. They felt good.

Anyway, Tom Russell of Bristol & West won the senior men, and Kate Goodhead of Bristol & West was the second senior woman.

Bristol & West won the mob match and (as has happened before in the Bath Half) because I was one of the trailing members of the team, I got in on the prizes - hence the the ten quid, even though it was really the efforts of the fast ones up front who won it for us.

It was pretty miserable weather, and thanks is due to tall the organisers and helpers.

I think I was about 10 secs slower than last year. Never mind, I reckon I had the best looking shoes, not that I care about that kind of thing.

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Friday, November 20
10:06AM

Gaining confidence

By AuthorMike | CommentAdd a comment!

I managed to make it up for interval training up at Coombe Dingle on Tuesday. Chris elson split the group into faster runners and slower runners. I started in the slower group, but after 4 reps decided to run with the faster group. From now on I need to carry on that way.

We did 2x300m, 2x400m, 2x850m, 2x400m, 2x300m (roughly) and I really enjoyed it. My average pace was 3:26.

Then finished with a 2km trot round the edge of the playing fields with Dave T. Being an affable, cheery, and positive kinda guy, Dave has talked me into joing the Mike Sully 4k mob match this Sunday afternoon. I ran in one of these races this time last year and it was pretty sobering experience - see here. However, for the reasons just mentioned, Dave was able to rope me in.

For those of you that may not know, a “mob match” is when loads of runners form different clubs all run together and the joint performance of each team is what counts. At least I think it is - I’ve never done one, and I’ve never seen a description of what one is anywhere!

Since starting to do more interval training on grass I’ve been thinking of buting some spiked running shoes. I think my reward for facing possible humiliation this weekend will be to buy some tomorrow. They may hekp me run faster in the Mike Sully.

If you fancy seeing some fast runners suffering in the wind and rain, I suggest you pop up to the Downs this Sunday.

 

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Thursday, November 19
10:02PM

Its time for rest

By AuthorPhil | CommentAdd a comment!

Well after a disastrous training week last week, thankfully not through illness or injury, just other priorities and recovery from the physio session on Thursday, I finally got a training run in on Monday evening, I decided on my normal four mile loop around Thornbury, just to get my legs back into the swing of things as it were.

I followed that run by joining up with the usual Tuesday night training session, Mike and Keith changed their ideas on the session and decided to run 8 x 2min 30 efforts, I wasn’t much looking forward to this not because of the efforts just the very quick corners, in speaking to Jon Wills (who finished 5th on the previous Sundays Brighton 10k) he said that he would prefer to do a few loops on the road, so I joined up with him, and we did 2 x 4k loops averaging 6:30 min/mile in the first loop and 6:05 in the second, quick but steady enough.

Wednesday was a 6 mile lunchtime effort nothing too spectacular nice steady pace that got me round in just over 40 mins.

Today, was a easy 5 mile, with some sporadic efforts to stretch my legs ready for the weekends racing.

Now its time to rest ready for a busy Sunday. Starting with the Castle Coombe 10k in the morning followed by the the Mike Sully Trophy Mob Match on the Downs in the afternoon, then I will probably just sleep!!!

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