Where does one blog from, spent 10 minutes messing around, Q& A, then gave up, so its an update not a blog, does it matter?!

Yesterday was the 1st Hampshire XC league fixture at Farley Mount and probably one of my favourite courses. Having completely missing the previous XC season with injury I wanted to be there on the start line for thr first. On arrival I wasn’t totally convinced I should be racing, offers of pacing came and my neighbour and club teammate returning from an achilles injury not helping, both of us thinking maybe we should just trot round in our trainers as we warmed up. We are both very competitive though and agreed we couldn’t just ’trot round’ though aware we are not in our twenties anymore!

No mud to speak of, the course however had changed, no out and back to the old car park (where we used to run threshold on Saturdays Nick!). Instead the course looped in the woods, twisting & turning, its what I love, I somehow run hard and fast on these short sections of a course and if its narrow even better…..loved it. Three times up the hill made this a tough one. I was a little concerned about my calf, however decided I would go for it and wear spikes. I went off steady up the 1st sharp hill, as seemed the rest of the field and was surprised how quickly I got into my rhythm, I’m usually like a bat out of hell and die! It was hard work, i’m clearly in need of hill training, and would like to be able to maintain my speed, but surprised myself being that far up the field. Top 50 I thought would be ok on the first outing. I slowed up the hill on final lap, didn’t lose places, just strong running off the top. As we came out of the woods on the final lap, a youngster overtook me, her coach shouting at her to do so! Not convincing though, she didn’t get away and I was hot on her heels. So with 150m to go I went for it, there was no reply and I finished strongly in 29th place. Top 30 in first race, very very happy with that. i’m still smiling More fitness, reckon I could knock 10 places off. Top 20 place by the end of the season maybe. i’m back!!

I could have done with Mark Renshaw leading me out at the finish this morning, but I think he was busy.

my training schedule yesterday included chopping up 10kg of tomatoes for the lunch on the boat trip! How people do ”proper” cooking in such a tiny space, I have no idea. My hands are still sore from tying 120 pom poms on strings to decorate the buses.
But back to the real world……Out here, I am back to judging threshold by HR. The discussion has helped quite a lot. I always find running in hot, humid ( up to 80%) conditions very hard. I am rubbish at judging effort as I am nearly always out of my comfort zone. Four word answers is too slow, and there is quite a range of speed for me at three words. I have not had a long, injury free training to judge by speed, either. I am also doing some treadmill running here and they are not always accurate. My max HR is 166 and resting HR is 52. Do we calculate 85% of max HR or working HR?
By the way, the cross training went well on Saturday and I danced until 2.30am with no injury. ( or hangover).
I am hoping there are no more duties to perform an I can have two days to train and sunbathe…..and calculate HR zones…..

I have become attached to my one eyed avatar. As an optometrist, I find it amusing. Good luck to all at Bristol tomorrow. I cant make it due to back/neck niggles and recovering from ten rounds with expert physio.