West District XC Relays, 4.8 miles moderate

I wouldn't normally take part in the West District relays but they were at Rouken Glen this year. I was on the final leg for the Vets team and hoped we would be well ahead of the Seniors by that point as I wasn't looking forward to a race with Marco. I took both spikes and trail shoes along and decided to go with the trail shoes. The results showed later that at the start of my leg, we were third vets but only 10 seconds behind the leaders, and we had a 26-second advantage over the Garscube seniors. The course had been chewed up all afternoon and was quite heavy. I made up a few places early on and must have moved into second place at this point, although it was hard to tell whether the other runners were on the final leg or just their second lap. After a sharp right turn I could see Marco a comfortable distance behind, although at the same place on the second lap he was evidently a few seconds closer. By now I was battling a runner from Kirkintilloch Olympians with what I thought might be a Cambuslang Harriers veteran just in front, although it was hard to tell which teams were veterans and which weren't. I was able to maintain my pace OK and would most likely have been fine for another lap, but I couldn't run any faster and lost out along the home straight. It turned out that the Cambuslang Harriers veterans beat us by 5 seconds. I was however third fastest for Garscube on the day, after Joe and John. Time was 15:20, distance around 2.57 miles according to two independent GPS measurements, giving me a 5:58/mile average. Ran a slow lap afterwards to warm down.

After I got home I still seemed to have plenty in reserve so I went out for a run up Maryhill Road, down Shakespeare Street for a loop of Winton Drive and Cleveden Road, and back home up Shakespeare Street and down Garscube Road to Grovepark Street. Wore the adiZero Tempo. Finished the 4.82 miles in 31:43, average pace 6:34/mile, HR 162.

Pace splits (ave. HR): 7:05 (152), 6:20 (159), 6:32 (166), 6:35 (169), 6:17 (168)
HR zones: 1.4%, 0.6%, 28.6%, 69.4%, 0%