February 2010 Review

I continued to follow my marathon training plan during February, which resulted in me running 192 miles (133 in 2009), so I’m already about 50 miles ahead of my target to run 2010 miles in MMX. I cycled 47 miles (0 in 2009) and a visited the pool once, it’s just hard to squeeze in swimming and cycling on top of marathon training, I really don’t know how tri-athletes manage it and get sufficient rest.

I maintained my one race a week record, doing two Glasgow parkruns, the first took me 22:05, one second quicker than my January best, whilst the next one took me 21:44 a good improvement but still a bit off of my course PB of 21:18. However my points total was enough to see me occupy third place in the men’s individual points table. My best time last Feb was 23:39.

At the age of 52.5 I participated in Scotland’s blue-riband Cross Country Race and placed 400th out of 447, completing the 12k in 59:04. I placed sixth Killie Harrier (out of six!) which assisted the team in finishing in a very respectful 20th position.

I also took part in the Jack Crawford 10k, which this year was a Killie Harriers' Championship race, and managed to get a 70+% wava, by completing the race in a time of 44:18, far from the time I was hoping for but a good run considering the conditions. My time last year was 44:37.

So it’s a question of ‘some improvement’ and ‘so far so good’ but also ‘could do a bit better.’

In the non running front, I've continued to go to the GFT or other cinema once a week, I've kept my promise to cut down on the drink and I've taken up learning to play the guitar.