Hogmanay Handicap, 6 miles steady

This year's Jack Shirley Memorial Handicap was run in the reverse direction on account of a long, icy hill. I opted for the Inov-8s again for a bit more traction in what I expected to be poor conditions. The temperature was about -3 so I wore running tights as it would most likely be colder out in the countryside. I was off scratch again and had made up about 10 seconds on Marco along Baldernock Road, which turned out to be almost entirely free of snow and ice. Approaching the mill, on what should have been the fastest mile of the course, I had noticed one of my laces was trailing. I tried to ignore it but the knot came undone completely as I passed a cottage on Dowan Road so I had to stop and tie it. The double knot on the other shoe was also untying itself, so I tightened it before continuing, but I had lost momentum as well as around 20 seconds through stopping, and it was hard to get moving again in the cold. The road was icy until we reached Auchenhowie Road, but it was easiest to run in tyre tracks, so the Inov-8s were no more help than ordinary running shoes would have been, and there were still some nasty moments on corners. I managed to pick it up a bit in the flat final mile and finished the 4.05 miles in 25:26, average pace 6:16/mile. This was over 2 minutes down on last year. Pace splits: 6:20, 6:32, 6:23, 5:54, 4:58 (sprint at finish).

In the afternoon I had no injury worries other than tight hamstrings, so I went out for a steady run around the same 6-mile route as Thursday, which seemed more dangerous than before, especially along New City Road and Great Western Road. This time it came out at 6 miles exactly, time 42:17 for a 7:03/mile average. Pace splits: 6:58, 6:52, 7:10, 7:00, 7:18, 6:58. Weekly total: 25 miles.