Less Than 1 Month To Go!

No. 19044 Blue Wave
It's suddenly here; less than one month to go to the 2013 Great Manchester Run on Sun 26th May and my number and timing chip have arrived in the post.

Training Update
Last week I took on a current comfortable road distance but added a little pace to test myself out. The result of this was 6km in 33m which is a good sub 60min pace at 11kph.
I again used the heart rate monitor to avoid overstretching but took less notice of it only pulling back when over 170bpm.
I felt really good after this run although the old left achilles was making itself known the following days. This led me to give Bramhall parkrun a miss at weekend and delay my next planned road run with a few days rest.  I had intended a gentle gym session but I'd run out of payasUgym passes and by the time I had processed Tesco vouchers to buy them it was too late. I went for a 3km walk instead.

10k Achieved
On Tuesday I felt ready to go for 10km distance which I had wanted to achieve about 4 weeks before the run. My intention was to keep the pace a very easy jog going purely for distance and hoping not to have any walk breaks. I felt good on a gorgeous bright but cool morning and I jogged steadily throughout and was delighted to pass the 10km mark at 1:04:22. This means I only have to trim four and a half minutes which I'm sure I can do.

10km seemed a long way but only in time, I wasn't physically struggling so much as in danger of becoming bored. I guess that will be different on the day as running in a group is so much different.

I am very lucky where I live and parts of my routes extend into countryside. At one point I was running toward a gorgeous backdrop of the green hills of the Western Pennines as I passed fields of horses. There is also a lot of urban road and housing estates but this adds variety which is great.

After Effects
At the end of the 10km and that evening I felt like my legs had had a good workout and I was weary but generally in good condition. I could feel some tenderness around my left calf muscle to achilles tendon so iced that.
The following morning my ankles felt a bit 'clicky' and my leg muscles felt stretched but otherwise not bad. 48hrs later, my calf is a little sore reminding me that I have to be careful after injuring myself a year ago but it feels like a few days' rest is all that is required.

Cadence & Playlist
I have been running with my phone music library on random so have had no pace assist from the beat.
My next project is to select a playlist for the big day so I'll be measuring the BPM of various tracks and testing out what keeps me steady. Prepare for some dodgy tracks!
I found this free program very good for calculating BPM of tracks in my Windows library Abyssmedia BPM Counter.


DON'T FORGET TO.....
  
Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.