Week one of proper training went well. I managed to commute to and from the office on all 5 days, I swam 76 lengths (1900m) which I believe is half the Ironman swim distance. Whilst I also managed to do my promised three run minimum but only just, running Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This culminated in the Essex 20 a 20 mile race run on quiet roads just outside of Colchester.
The day was miserable, with rain and drizzle pretty much from when Lauren and I woke up at before 8 O'clock till just before 1 when I finished the race. It went about as well as I could have hoped for with my current training and level of fitness. I had set myself a target time of between 2hrs 40mins (8min miles) and 3 hrs (9min miles). I intended to run a little quicker than 9 minute miling to get some time in the bank incase the wheels fell off.
I had read a few comments from runners who had done previous editions of the Essex 20 and they all made reference to the flat, fast course. But unfortunately the race had changed location and route and so within two minutes of the start we were enjoying a long, steep descent, but all of the runners around me knew that what goes down must also come up and so shortly afterwards we were treated to our first hill of the day.
There were 2 or 3 other very decent hills over the remainder of the lap, and as it was a 3 lap course you can see that we got to 'enjoy' another two goes at each before our day was done. I really tried to run on feel today and not to times. This was my first go at a 20 mile race, and I was far from peak condition, so just wanted to run well within myself. Aside from the last 5 miles where I really was fighting the urge to walk or call Lauren to end my anguish the race wasn't too painful.
I believe there were about 500 runners doing the race and after the initial two miles we began to spread out and so by lap three it really was a very lonely trudge around the quiet village route with only the drip,drip,drip of drizzle to keep me company. But I made it, I didn't walk at all, it was even paced, there were vicious hills and I hit pretty much smack bang in the middle of my targets running something like 02:50:30 official time should follow tomorrow.
Came home to a big beef roast, followed by an hour and a halfs nap, to wake up just in time to see the tail end of Uniteds 3-1 win over Spurs, this all followed my packed Saturday which meant I have had a pretty spot on weekend.
My Training for the week was:
Run - 3 times - 26.2 miles
Swim - 1 Time - 1.18 miles
Bike - 10 times - 61.03 miles
Total exercise time - 8hrs 39 mins
My 20 Mile Race Splits were:
5 miles - 42:04
10 Miles - 01:24:48 (42:44)
15 Miles - 02:07:05 (42:17)
20 Miles - 02:50:22 (43:17)
Per my garmin. So very evenly split.
Check back in next for week 2 of 18 where I will have news of a swim, some cycling and a 5K Parkrun.
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