A good friend, Roger offered me a spare ticket to see the World Series Triathlon in Leeds from the grandstand in Millenium Square. Since the race went all around Leeds you didn’t really need a ticket but the prospect of a grandstand view was too good to miss. This is the first time the UK leg of this world-wide series has been held outside London and it’s really great to have world class athletic sports on your doorstep.
So I got up bright and early on Sunday to do my own 6 mile run before Church and then off to Leeds in time for the 1 PM start to the elite races. it was a brilliant day out and what a fairytale ending to the proceedings with the two Brothers Brownlee utterly dominating the men’s race and getting first and second in their home city. I have massive respect for these athletes not only for the fact that they are from my home city of Leeds, but the fact that they get involved locally and are really supportive of the local amateur sports scene. I have no doubt mentioned in my blogging before that I met Jonathan in the reception of my physiotherapist, where we talked about my upcoming marathon training.
Looking at some of the photos I took of the race, I reflected that sometimes you can get a better view of how fast someone is running from a static photograph and it just goes to show how supremely good these guys are at running!
I also thought about my own running performance recently and despite all the miles I have done, how little progress in terms of speed I have made since I restarted training early March. In the middle of last week I just had to rest because all the miles and early morning starts had completely shattered me.
Obviously, trying to stretch the envelope purely in terms of raw running volume isn’t as smart an idea as I thought. Maybe I need to concentrate on quality rather then quantity and also give a chance for proper rest. I’ve been doing 50 miles per week and this is quite a step-up from what I was doing in April and May (or from what I have ever done for that matter). If I back-off on my mileage and number of running days I will still be running around 40 miles each week and that for me is as much as I have ever sustained! I can make sure that as well as long runs, I do enough of the technical work like intervals, hills, sprints etc as well as building strength in the Gym. I’d love to get in shape to do some reasonable performances in the July races.
“Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” Proverbs 24:14 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/pro.24.14.nivuk
Marathon Mann 