I felt quite good after the High Weald 50k, but I decided to rest for a couple of days.
Wednesday I did a relatively easy 10k run at 4:35. It’s starting to get cold in the morning! On Thursday I did a bit longer run, 13k at 4:42 and then on Friday a super easy 11k at 5:03. Saturday I fully rested.
On Sunday I went to run the Royal Borough of Kingston 10 mile race with the intention of doing my 10 mile PB. I don’t remember what it was before but I decided to aim for 1:01 which meant running the race at an average of 3:50 min/km.
The day was beautiful and sunny. The route was the one I usually do in the morning when I run 15k, plus a little loop at the beginning, so I was playing in my ‘hood. The race started at the Kingston market square, which is really nice. It’s the first edition of the race but there were quite a lot of people.
At 8:30 we started. I accelerated straight away to overtake as many people as I could and place myself in the top 20 group. From other local races and from the way I saw people warming up I had a good idea who was going to be in front so once I had only those people ahead of me I started running at my 3:50 target pace. I did not always manage to keep it but I was not too far.
From the 5th km I found myself running with another guy and we basically ran the whole race together pulling and helping each other. We managed not to lose any place and in the last mile he accelerated and I stayed with him only enough to overtake one guy, but then he went on his way.
I did not manage to cross the finish line in the time I had hoped and finished in 1:02 which is still very good and I am very pleased I also broke my 10k, 15k and 10 mile PBs. Plus I finished 14th overall which I am very happy with. Check out my Strava of the race here.
My wife was waiting at the finish line, which does not happen very often so it was a nice surprise. She took this video of my final sprint:
[wpvideo PedwALtA]
Overall a good week, recovered well from the 50k and achieved quite a nice result on Sunday. In the next couple of weeks I will increase the mileage again to get ready for the Druids Challenge.
See you on the road/trails!