10 to 1

So this was a Thursday back to back with a fast Wednesday. One mustn't overdo it, especially as a 'veteran', but it seems to be well accepted that distance-trained is vital to success in longish events. Well, within reason anyway, but as that threshold is somewhere over 100km per week I don't have that worry presently.

I set off from home with with a plan to try a run-walk strategy and really do it. I decided to have a 1 minute break every 10 minutes with a goal of keeping an average pace better than 6minutes/km. Of course, over the toughest uphill km of the route I did go more slowly but the average was sustained. As a system it felt to work well but I can't say that I got home fresh. There was a break during a longish downhill section too and that felt more of a relief for the muscles than the uphill breaks. These breaks are supposed to be rests for the soft tissues, in particular muscles tired from eccentric contractions, not for 'aerobic' reasons.

Image stolen from Ron Hill website

It was a wet day too, so that gave me the chance to test my newly acquired Ron Hill Trail Tempest jacket. Some of the showers before I left the house were heavy, but whilst out it barely rained, so I would have been better with a far more breathable windbreaker. Anyway, I didn't get too wet from sweating and the jacket did fit nicely into my bag for the few minutes when I decided I was getting too hot. It's been a good experience to try the jacket out as I'll have to take it if I do a 'proper' trail event.