It’s so nice to actually put down some miles this week after the holiday excesses and include a race and reasonable long run in all that.
We got back from France on the monday and I had an unexpected chance to run The Trunce, a local trail race run every few weeks that enjoys a great turnout and reputation for a challenging and interesting course just under 4 miles. I didn’t think I’d do that well thanks to the previous couple of weeks croissant loading but to be honest, I’m reasonably happy with 29:20 and 24th place. My legs and lungs lasted roughly a mile before reminding me of the lack of recent training!
One thing that was interesting during the race was just how many people simply suck at running downhill.
I ended up walking up a few of the uphill bits to get my breath back and I was often passed by one or two people only to easily breeze past them going back down a hill. On a better day, I’d match them uphill and disappear down. If you’re not the strongest downhill runner, I wrote some tips that might help improve your downhill running.
The rest of the week was some easy base building followed by the opportunity to get out on sunday and do a reasonably long run (15.5 miles) in driving rain (great chance to put the VapourLight jacket to further testing). I was pleased with how the legs felt and actually managed to bag a half mile Strava segment CR running 4:56/mile pace after 10 miles of soaking trail so happy with that too.
I love running in grim weather, and today’s long run was just that!
Looking forward to a nice easy week next week followed by meeting up with the Trail Team to do the Berghaus Trail Chase and hear all about Martin, Kirsty & Danny’s amazing 1,2,3 result at the Dusk til Dawn ultra!
- Monday – 3.8 (Trunce Race) miles
- Tuesday – 8 miles
- Wednesday – 7.5 miles
- Thursday – 9.5 miles
- Friday – 7.1 miles
- Saturday – Rest
- Sunday – 15.6 miles
Total: 51.5 miles, 4,787ft elevation.