And Repeat.....

You can see a pattern emerging here. I'm changing my training routine round to have 2 or 3 shorter and hopefully faster runs during the week and a long one at the weekend. I just wanted to see if an adjustment away from pure length and endurance training to speed will improve my overall speeds at half marathon and 10K distances.

Same 10K route today but it was very windy and much more constantly there, again from the West with some nice rain and hail mixed in.

I started quick and tried to concentrate on long strides as this has proven in the past to speed up my times considerably, despite it feeling odd. I was at the top of Hedgehog hill in 23:57 and was pretty tired but the turn and flat run at the top had me recovered within 500M. The turn was however straight into the wind, so wind is now in my face for almost all of the run back.

I can definately feel the ability to breath much easier than last week and much more deeply, although I only feel that naturally I fill about 75% of my lung capacity when I'm running. If I force it I can get much more air in but I'm not sure if that actually helps as it slows down my breaths per minute.

At 7K mark I got a bit of a second wind as I was sheltered between the trees.

As I emerged from the trees with just under 2.5K to go I got a blast of wind straight in my face from right across the open fields. It took my breath away. I knew the run in would be very hard now and as I climbed the hill to the top of the plateau the wind increased as did the rain and hail. It was hard just to keep going straight into it and I was glad I had my sunglasses on to protect my eyes from the hail.

My legs were getting stiff from the cold and I was struggling to keep a rhythm up with the constant battering of the wind. As I dropped to the last 700M I get more shelter from a small wood and it feels like someone has switched on an electric fire as the heat from the sun reaches me. I purposely avoided looking at my watch on the run in as it puts me off. I just kept driving the last 700M and finished in 50:26 which is a littled over Tuesday's outing but given the wind speed I think it was a fair session. It certainly felt harder during it but I was less wiped out right at the end.