4.2 miles slow

Went for another run with Natasha round Stromovka, this time extended to the Planetarium on one side and to the tennis club on the other. Wore the Newton Distance S again. Shin was causing a few minor problems but was much better than I would have expected for two consecutive days of running, for the first time since early March. I had been getting in a quick calf stretch every time we were on an escalator in the metro, which might have helped. Finished the 4.15 miles in 35:45 for a 8:36/mile average.

Weekly total: 11 miles

3.2 miles slow

Took my running gear to Prague in the hope of getting a few miles in, not least because I had deliberately chosen a hotel near a couple of parks, and went out with Natasha on Saturday morning for a run around Stromovka. We followed the main path down the hill, turning right at the bottom, and ran round the main loop with a minor detour for a smaller loop on the other side of the railway tunnel. The climb back up the main path went on a bit, but the road up to the hotel was much harder work. Shin was niggling me a bit. Finished the 3.17 miles in 27:27, 8:40/mile average.

3.3 miles slow

Tried to get a few more slow miles in on Tuesday evening. There was a small group of London marathon participants running some easy reps in the business park across Maryhill Road from Garscube Estate, so I joined in for a few of them. Distance including warm-up and warm-down came out at 3.28 miles, time 25 minutes.

5 miles easy

The injury was gradually improving due to a combination of rest, ice and stretching, and I was able to support myself on my right ankle without any problems, so I decided to try a few miles on Sunday afternoon. I was going to run my usual West End route but it was going OK so I headed onto the canal at the fire station, down to Kelvindale and back via Dorchester Avenue and Great Western Road. Wore the death boots for extra stability but I think I would go with the Newton Distance S next time. The shin was still nagging me a bit, and I started to struggle from lack of fitness after about 3 miles. Finished the 5.41 miles in 39:46, average pace 7:21/mile, HR 158. Might be able to run again after a couple more days' rest.

Pace splits (ave. HR): 7:40 (145), 7:12 (159), 7:15 (155), 7:24 (161), 7:14 (164), 7:23 (169)
HR zones: 1.3%, 2.5%, 52.9%, 43.3%, 0%
Weekly total: 5 miles

National Road Relay Championships

By Saturday morning I had improved enough to take part in the relays at Livingston, although if the race hadn't been on I would have waited at least another day before trying to run again. Other assorted injuries meant I was on the first leg. This would have been fine if I had been able to train properly for the past few weeks, but I knew that sooner or later I would fall behind the group I would normally have considered my rivals. Opted for the Newton Motus as a decent compromise between speed and injury protection, as recently it had seemed easier to run in the Newton Distance S than the adiZero Tempo. I couldn't risk a warm-up but as soon as the race started I felt not too bad and was pretty sure of making it round OK. The pack in front of me started to stretch away within the first mile, and I started to find every hill a lot harder than it should have been. The last mile was really hard work and I felt very slow, but I was still holding my position in the field and only moving up or down a place very occasionally. I lost a place in the finishing straight due to being unable to sprint, and handed over to Ben in 26th place with about a dozen runners less than a minute ahead of me.

I had predicted a time of 18:something, so 17:55 wasn't too bad, and was our fastest short leg of the day. It also wasn't too far down on previous years, although I have evidently lost quite a bit of fitness - won't bother entering the Polaroids unless I can resume proper training very soon. The diversion in the last mile made the course look as if it was going to be shorter, although after measuring it with gmap-pedometer there didn't seem to be much difference after all. Using GPS, it came out at 3.07 miles, giving me a 5:50/mile average. Ben made up a load of places to bring us up to 9th, and Joe on the fourth leg took us into 7th before we finished 9th, equalling our best performance from 2 years ago.

Pace splits: 5:41, 5:59, 5:54
Weekly total: 10 miles