Hill reps

The club training session consisted of hill reps in Westerton, after a warm-up jog of about 1.3 miles from Garscube Estate. We ran up Crarae Avenue, jogged round the block, and then ran up Murrayfield Drive and jogged back down again. This was repeated six times. On most of the longer of the two climbs I came from behind to reach the top first, but the shorter hill was always over before I got moving. Quite a tough session.

5.7 miles steady

Went for a steadier run from Bearsden Asda up to Craigdhu Road as usual, but to try to stretch it out to 5 miles I came back via Manse Road and Kilmardinny Avenue, which turned out to have a serious hill which I had forgotten about. This actually brought it up to 5.7 miles and I finished in 38:43.

3 miles slow, 7 miles moderate

Went out in the morning for Natasha for a shorter run than the day before, heading down Shakespeare Street and then following the Kelvin Walkway as far as Kelvinbridge. It came out at just over 3 miles.

In the afternoon I tackled the familiar 7-mile route via Garscube Estate with my new fluorescent Skylon 2 racing shoes. I crossed the bridge over the Kelvin just outside 20 minutes which was reasonably fast, but got stuck for ages at the traffic lights on Bearsden Road, otherwise I might have picked it up a bit more at the end to try to finish inside 45 minutes. Got back home in 45:42, which is around 6:32 per mile. Weekly total: 37 miles.

3.6 miles slow, 5.15 miles moderate

Went out in the morning with Natasha for 3.6 miles via Garrioch Road and Napiershall Street.

In the afternoon I ran a 5.15 mile route via Dorchester Avenue, finishing in 33:35 which was just outside 6:30 per mile.

7 miles steady

Went out in the evening for 7 miles via Garscube Estate, with the vague goal of running faster than 7-minute miles. Arrived back home in 48:38 which works out at 6:56 per mile.

8.1 miles steady/tempo

For the club training session, billed as a steady run, there was a choice of a 6-mile route or an 8-mile route, and the top two packs had been combined. The pace down Crow Road and along Great Western Road seemed to be slower than 7:30 per mile, and there were a few problems dodging pedestrians on Byres Road. At Highburgh Road the pack split into those who wanted to try the longer route and those who didn't. My calf and hamstring still felt OK so I continued down Byres Road on the 8-mile route with a few others. I couldn't resist running a single hill rep up Gardner Street which gave me a few extra seconds at the top to recover and stretch my calf a bit.

The pace increased steadily down Clarence Drive and up Crow Road, although the pack had mostly stayed together. By Dorchester Avenue it was starting to get quite tough, but when we got onto Cowal Road I stretched out down the hill and suddenly found myself about 50m ahead. Not wanting to risk injury with a fast finish, I eased off a bit on Maryhill Road the top of the hill until I had been caught, and we got back to Garscube Estate in 58:13 which is a 7:11/mile average, so the second half of the run must have been substantially faster than the first.

3.2 miles steady

After having been limping around since Sunday night, I was able to walk almost normally again on Tuesday afternoon, and by Wednesday I just had some residual calf pain. After playing football I went out for 3.2 miles via Shakespeare Street and managed reasonably well, finishing in 23:18, although my left hamstring felt a bit tender afterwards.

3.6 miles slow

The blister hadn't improved any overnight but I tried to go out in the afternoon for a few miles and made it a bit worse. Weekly total: 35 miles.

Glasgow University 5 Mile Road Race, 7 miles steady

I felt like I had a bit of a cold coming on but was otherwise fine to run, although almost immediately after the start I had very heavy legs. I soon had an enforced walking break as the wider of the two gates at the top of Garscube Estate apparently couldn't be opened, so only the leaders at that point managed to avoid the congestion. I had been aiming for 5:30 per mile and went through the first mile marker at about 5:32, which was probably ahead of schedule due to the problem with the gate, but it turned out that there were no other mile markers on the course, and in any case there were enough sharp hills that maintaining a consistent pace would have been difficult. I was second for Garscube for the entire race without ever looking like catching our leading runner. On the second lap I started to make up a few places, and by the end had climbed to 21st place, although I didn't feel like I was having a particularly good race. Finishing time was 28:17 which was 33 seconds up on last year - goal for next year is to beat 28 minutes.

Afterwards I had a fairly serious blister from my half-a-size-too-small Mayflys, but I found a blister plaster at home. It occurred to me that I didn't feel as if I'd done anything at all and I might as well rack up a few more miles, so I went back out straight away for my usual 7-mile route via Garscube Estate, although at a steady pace this time. At the dual carriageway on Maryhill Road I bumped into John Bell of Springburn Harriers who ran with me as far as Queen Margaret Drive. Got back home in 52:44.

6.9 miles steady

The club's Thursday training session was advertised as a steady run of between 6 and 7 miles. The route took us out the top gate, down Crow Road, along Southbrae Drive, up Lincoln Avenue, through Blairdardie and over the canal, then back along Drumchapel Road and Canniesburn Road to Garscube Estate. We should probably have gone along Blairdardie Road but went up Great Western Road and down the path beside the canal instead, which added about .2 of a mile for a total of 6.9 miles in just under 48 minutes. I stuck to a steady pace all the way round and avoided any kind of fast finish on account of Saturday's race.

2.5 miles recovery

Went for a slow 2.5-mile run via Queen Margaret Drive after playing football.

Mixed session

The club training session was billed as a "mixed session", which started with a jog along Maryhill Road, up Ballater Drive and back into Garscube Estate. We were then split into three mixed groups for 10 minutes of steady shuttle runs up and down the road beside the rugby pitch. This was followed by 12x140m sprints on the warm-up trail with 1 minute recovery, after we had been divided into packs of differing speeds. I ran them more or less flat out to begin with and thought of easing off while recovering after the 5th rep, but I managed to persevere as it didn't seem too bad while I was actually running - I was just feeling progressively worse during the recoveries.

4.6 miles moderate

In much colder conditions I had another go at my 4.6-mile Monday evening route around Bearsden and Milngavie. On reaching Stockiemuir Road I suspected I was well ahead of previous attempts, probably helped by a day off on Sunday. I finished in 28:46 for a 6:15/mile average on a hilly route.

Allan Scally relay

I was on the first leg again and set off at a pace which seemed comfortable enough to begin with and still kept me in sight of the leaders for a while, although I had forgotten to memorise any mile or kilometre markers and therefore couldn't keep an eye on my splits. Shortly after reaching Edinburgh Road I was passed by a runner from Glasgow University, who also went past a runner from Irvine, and I stayed behind the two of them for the next mile or so. By this point I was fairly confident of beating my 2007 time, and Thursday's time trial didn't seem to be having much of an effect. I began to gain on the Irvine runner and passed him while we were still on Edinburgh Road, although after a few hundred metres he started to come back and overtook me just after the lane off Buchanan Street, but didn't manage to get away. I moved ahead again during a sprint finish to the line where I handed over to... nobody, because our second leg runner hadn't turned up and the others were still out warming up. He did eventually appear and Shettleston Harriers kindly allowed us to rejoin the race later on with a time penalty.

My finishing time was 26:31 which was the fastest time for Garscube on the day, once again by just a few seconds. It was after last year's race that I started this blog and my goal for this year had been to finish inside 27 minutes. I was 14th after my leg, although the official results placed me behind the Irvine runner, probably because we had nobody to take over. We were 15th overall. Natasha had turned up only to find we had no women's team, so she ran with the first leg runners and stayed on the main road at the start and finish to avoid crossing the line.