Running hills 1:15:20 13.56 km (5:33 / km) +375m4:53 / km ahr:161 max:176
Rainy morning but decided that's no excuse.
Skipped the relays yesterday as a.) I did not have a competitive relay having been bumped from the Spari #1 team (absolutely correctly) based on current form, and did not fancy driving 4+ hours just to run a bit at the back of the field and b.) I'd rather spend the limited time with family when I am over here.
That meant effectively a rest day so I had to put in some training today, especially seeing it is unlikely that I will be able to do so tomorrow due to travel + work.
So an early morning to get this done before work.
Ran up to the water tower on the Buda hills, a route we ran usually as the peak of winter training regime when I was little, but nowadays I use this to check my stamina etc. fairly regularly as this is a tough to medium climb all the way to the halfway point.
Not surprising that I was off by a couple of minutes from my time in the spring where I was in much better shape, but still not a catastrophe. I had to walk a little bit of the middle of the Diana steps, a shame but then did a bit of self-analysis and found that it really wasn't my legs that could not cope but my oxygen supply, so switched to a breathing pattern of 1 out - 2 in, which is more rapid than the 2-2 I have used so far on the most strenuous efforts. It was unusual and I had to force it a bit, but it seemed to work and I got a bit better through this section and was able to pick up the running mechanics a bit more. Not sure how much the slowdown was due to rain/wind/slippery surface, but hope to build on this going forward. Will be interesting to see how I do on the Stickler on Sunday.