Manchester Marathon Training Week 2: The One With The 10k PB

Week 2 (17 weeks to go):

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 13.5k steady with 10 x 100m strides.
Wednesday: 18.6k medium long run.
Thursday: 16.8k Xmas day parkrun plus run to & from.
Friday: 14.5k steady run.
Saturday: Rest
Sunday 11.6k Ribble Valley 10k

Total: 75k (46.5mi)

The miles were down this week firstly because I raced on Sunday so there was only long run for the week and secondly due to the second, unplanned, rest day of the week on Saturday. The plan had been to run Oldham parkrun with my wife Janet but due to ice this was cancelled. I could have gone for a run later but I decided to keep my feet up for Sunday.

Strangely I felt like the hardest session of the week was the strides. It's not something I've done much of before so I wasn't sure quite how to approach it. P&D suggested accelerating over the first 70m and coasting the final 30m. There was no indication of what period of recovery there should be and given Garmin Express will no longer send workouts I did one stride every KM. I'm not sure about the benefits of the session yet, but there are more in the plan so we'll see.

Sunday saw me toe the line at the Ribble Valley 10k. I'd heard this was a fast race so was keen to give it a go and try and improve my 10k pb. My previous best time of 39:44 was set 18 months ago at the Mersey Tunnel in Liverpool of which about 2 miles was in an air conditioned tunnel so this might be a bit of an anomaly.

Sub zero temperatures greeted me at Clitheroe but the course was mostly clear of frost and ice. The start was a bit of a farce with there being no gun or horn to signal the start and people starting way to far forward for the pace they wanted to do - somebody next to me was aiming for 9m/m!

The course was indeed fast with a few playful climbs but nothing overly challenging, apart from the one 400m from the end but more on that later. The toughest part of the whole route was the switchback just after 5k but this was only because it was covered in ice. Fortunately I didn't slip or see anybody do so but did hear others did. Perhaps some sand should have been put down?

I had my usual wobble at about 7.5k but worked on through it and headed on downhill towards the finish. Ah yes, the finish. What come down must go back up; having gone down in to the valley there was a climb back up at 9.6k. Okay it wasn't a massive climb but at this point of a 10k race it was tough. Getting up the hill was only the half of it as the finish line had no gantry so until I got to the timing mats I wasn't sure where the line was.

Finishing in 39:14 was a 30 second improvement on the Mersey Tunnel time so I'm really impressed with that. It was also great to see my running buddy Simon back racing after a frustrating couple of months for him with injury.
The miles start to clock up again next week with two medium long runs and a punishing looking long run with 8 miles at marathon pace. Looking forward to that one, I think.