3/6 - return to Lane Cove

Striders 10km run this morning. I could just go down and chat all morning, Striders is a such a brilliant club full of brilliant people. Picked up 26 and headed over to Lane Cove expecting arctic conditions based on the previous evening however we were greeted with positively balmy conditions. I had in mind about 42 minutes based on the time back and the difficulty of the track. I also had in mind running hardish out to the top of the rangers hut and seeing how I felt...I didnt see any long term benefit of cruising the hard part of the course. The logic behind this was that in the big scheme there would be greater benefit (at this stage) of belting out a hard 5kms with a struggle coming home than an average effort over the duration. In particular when I felt I would struggle in the last 5kms anyway. This is exactly how it panned out.

I found myself in the first 5kms running around Ross Sinclair, Danielle Langsworth, Sue Kelly and David Gayford. Ross was pacing Danielle for 40 minutes and the group was running at the pace I wanted to run at, so I tacked on. When we got to the top of the rangers hut Ross and Danielle took off back down hill and l watched the elastic snap as I struggled all the way home to finish in 41.20. But in the scheme I was pleased with the effort, as hard a hit out as I could muster. I could have probably eeked 5-10 seconds in the last km but I felt I had achieved what I wanted to this morning.

Comparitively however 4 minutes off where I was at the same time last year on the same course - it feels a lifetime ago and hard not to compare. It goes to show that you are only as good as your last outing.

But given where my training is at present I was happy without doing cartwheels. It was also great being amongst friends again.