When I was running on Wednesday I suddenly had the idea that my legs felt recovered enough to do a parkrun on Saturday. I had an another easy run on Friday morning and even though my legs felt a bit heavy I decided to run Pollok the next day.
I parked at Nether Craigs and ran almost 3 miles into Pollok Park in time for the 9.30am start. This has the advantage of adding a few more miles to a parkrun and means there is no hassle trying to get parked and in and out of the car park.
As I drove to Nether Craigs it was raining but by the time I set off it had eased off a bit and wasn’t too bad.
I decided to start fairly near the front and try and run as steadily as I could. I was really pleased how I felt and for the whole of the first lap I was catching people. By the time I got to the second lap I had overtaken a guy in red who then stayed with me for the whole of the second lap.
A couple of times I felt there was some distance between us but each time he caught up and once we hit the final downhill stretch he went past and I couldn’t stay with him!!
I finished 25th in 20:26 which I was more than pleased with.
I forgot to switch off my watch at the end but it is interesting to see what my HR was doing once I stopped.
I always like to see how I did on the age graded results as I end up nearer the top!!
By the time I had done my cool down run back to the car I had run over 8 miles which was good.
This coming week I have by far my biggest week of the year as I build up to the Hardmoors 160. Here is the plan …..
Next weekend I heading back down to North Yorks to do a big back to back on the route. It has taken a bit of planning but here is what I have worked out ….
I’ve booked a pitch at St Helens in the Park, Wykeham for Fri/Sat 1st/2nd Apr to sleep in my camper van.
Saturday 2nd April
8.15am Meet anyone who is interested in joining me at the car park near Cockmoor Hall 914 866 Leave one car at car park and drive one car back Wykeham (4miles)
8.39am Catch the 128 Bus to Helmsley arriving at 9.57am
10am Run from Helmsley to car park near Cockmoor Hall (41miles)
6pm (ish??) Arrive at car park and drive back to Wykeham
Sunday 3rd Apr
8am Meet at same car park near Cockmoor Hall
8.15am Run to Sandsend (35miles)
David Hetherington has kindly offered to leave his car at Sandsend and run south towards me. When I meet David, he will turn round and we will run together back to his car at Sandsend.
3pm (ish??) David will then drive me back to my car at Cockmoor Hall
4pm (ish??) Shower at the campsite and drive back to Scotland!
Hopefully everything will work out okay.