18K big run - more progress

Felt pretty good this morning after last nights 10K. Legs were fresh and not in anyway tight, tired or painful. I thought a long session tonight would be on the cards so I had a big curry and fried rice for lunch followed by a fruit salad and a smoothie. A couple of cans of ice tea in the office. I drank about 250ml of Isotonic when I got home and drank a couple of expressos and set out.

First 5k in 25 minutes. 10K dropped off in 51 minutes. I got a real second wind heading past the nunnery at the 11K mark and the climb to the Butte du Lion went past in a flash with little over-exertion but I knew I was working. I headed down the N5 and thought at that point that my time was going to be OK but not record breaking. I had my eye on my 1:33.07 time from last Friday night.

I got to the turn at the farm around 1:15 and thought then that I would be close to the 1:30 mark which was a surprise as I had some juice left in my legs. I really upped the pace and was running 4:30's per km and under until I hit the last hill which I really powered up its whole 500m length, mostly in the 4:40's and 4:50's per km.

I then bust a gut for the last km. I could hardly stand at the end and the watch was saying 1:30:17. Gutted not to have dipped under the 1:30 but my improvement in the last 10 days has been amazing with 1:41 ,1:50,1:33 and 1:30 times for 18K. All in the space of 8 days.

I'm not 100% sure but I think I was running this same distance in around 1:50 in August last year before the half marathon.