3.9 miles hard

The physio found a knot around my left IT band on Friday afternoon and on Saturday the hip was already feeling a lot better, so in the afternoon I tackled an old route of about 4 miles which I'd repeatedly tried (and failed) to run inside 25 minutes a few years back. I could certainly have done it in an actual race, but the first mile contained a long climb from Garscube Road up to the canal via Baird's Brae, and I could never quite make up the lost time on the rest of the course, with a route PB somewhere in the range of 25:15 to 25:30. Recent training performances in the Newtons suggested I could hardly fail this time around. It was quite foggy and the temperature was just a couple of degrees above freezing but I wore a t-shirt and shorts to avoid overheating.

The cobbles on Baird's Brae and the first part of the towpath were a bit tricky in the Newtons but I was ahead of schedule at this point and had possibly even set out too fast. The first mile went by in 5:51, so it looked like I could slow down quite a bit and still beat 25 minutes. The next time goal I remembered was that I had to reach the end of Lochburn Road in around 15 minutes, and as I turned onto Maryhill Road the time was 13:58, so it was all over - I could have taken it easy from that point and still made it. Maryhill Road was fairly busy and a couple of pedestrians commented to the effect that I was underdressed for the conditions. I got stuck waiting for traffic at Bilsland Drive for about 10 seconds but didn't stop the timer, even though minor delays when running at this kind of pace can really affect my average. I continued to push and felt slightly nauseous in the last half mile. Finished the 3.93 miles in 22:58 for a 5:51/mile average and a huge route PB. Pace splits: 5:51, 5:47, 5:58, 5:46.