Tomorrow is the Spar Craic 10k in Belfast, an ever popular run around the city centre to kick off the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Northern Ireland.
I entered it last year for the first time and set my old 10k PB which stood for almost a year until I bettered it twice lately … and I’m running it again tomorrow.
I’m not envisaging a PB this time, not least because I’ve got the second half marathon in my 18in18 Challenge next weekend so I’ll not be pushing myself too much. However, I am running well at the minute so I’m fairly hopeful of recording a decent enough time, although what will be will be at the end of the day.
As preparation, I decided to go the gym this evening to limber up. Although this is the fourth day this week I’ve exercised I didn’t do anything yesterday so my mind started to play tricks on me again, and I felt I needed to do something today otherwise I’ll dwell on it overnight and convince myself I’m soooo unfit, that there’s no point turning up tomorrow because I’ll be useless and so on.
So I decided to run to the gym (and back) and do 90 minutes on the exercise bike while I was there. Those 90 minutes produced a 26.2 mile ride, and the run there and back took me half-an-hour … a good endurance session all told, but without putting too much strain on my legs.
Running, I felt very comfortable. I kept it slow on the way there but was a lot quicker on the way back, something I always find slightly puzzling and amusing. Maybe I should use those tactics tomorrow, although the temptation to go off quickly at the start is often too great.
Let’s see what happens … but at least I’m going into the race in a positive frame of mind, which is never a bad thing.
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 