I’ve not posted anything about my running for a long time. To be fair, I’ve not posted much at all for a long time! Forgive me. One of the reasons for that is that I’ve been pretty busy with my day job and I’ve not found much time or inclination to come up with blog posts. Sad times.
Anyway, last year’s running season was greatly hampered by a chronic knee injury (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome) which hugely limited my mileage in the first half of the year and it wasn’t until the end of summer that I was anywhere close to normal again. I only entered one proper race all year, a 10k near Forres which although it got me a new PB it fell short of getting me under the 50 minute mark for the first time.
This year I’ve been able to hit the ground running. The wet winter and some other priorities meant I didn’t do as much in the shorter days as I’d really have liked but the last few months I’ve ramped up the miles again and hitting hills hard to try to improve my distance and overall speed with a view to attacking that 50 minute barrier for the 10k and the 2 hour one for the half. With one eye also on trying to get a club achievement for the half at Crathes in September.
In previous years my hill training has been restricted to a few intervals on Scolty. This year I’ve decided to go large and moved onto it’s near neighbour Kerloch. This is a 10k route with 1500 feet of ascent. It’s a beast for building strength. The route once it turns onto the shoulder of the hill is very steep and very rough so it’s also fantastic for building ankle stability and because what goes up, must come down, it’s superb for descending practice.
http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/478912424
Sadly my pride at my new training route was punctured slightly when I put it into Strava and was told I was 6th out of 6 for the climb to the top. Managing it from the gate in 39 minutes. First place was a fellow Deesider Runner who manages it in a barely believable 25 minutes. So still a lot of room for improvement!
As I said earlier this is all with a view to attacking my race PBs this year. So far I’ve entered two races – Baker Hughes City of Aberdeen 10k in May and the Fare Challenge in August. The Fare Challenge is a half marathon on the Hill of Fare, just outside Banchory. I don’t imagine anyone’s going to be setting PBs there so I’m on the lookout for a few more races to do as well. I imagine Stonehaven will feature and the one at Crathes would be a good end of summer target as well providing I don’t make it 3 times in a row that I enter and not run it!
Mince and Skirlie 