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IMG_0015.JPGWaiting for start with Richard Doherty, my fellow Redway Runner.

It’s been a busy few weeks of training and taking part in events, the most recent of which was the Bournemouth Marathon Festival on Sunday 5th October.

12 months ago, Bournemouth was the Difficult Second Marathon, which spawned the name of this blog, so getting the chance to re-trace those steps a year later was too good an opportunity to turn down.

This year, I decided to tackle the half rather than the full 26.2 – I’m normally a bit snobby about half marathons, taking the view that I’d rather do the full (proper) distance if I’m going to go all that way and make that effort.

However, as this was designated as a Redway Runners club trip and having already completed the full distance previously, this was a great opportunity to relax a little and enjoy the event by doing the shorter distance. In the days beforehand, I’d even categorised the race as a Cat C event in my mind – Cat A being primary focus, Cat B being full effort and focus, but not priority and Cat C effectively being all about taking part.

In recent weeks, my training has been a little bit all over the place. Having dipped my toe in the waters of triathlon, I’ve been heavily focused on shorter distances – 5K and 10k – by making my key sessions built on longish intervals of around one mile at or just above threshold, which for me is around the 6.30 min/mile mark.

Any other runs have been the all-important easy run, helping to maintain overall fitness and develop my ability to burn fat as fuel, while also protecting my muscles and joints with a number of races to take part in.

As a result, I would say that I haven’t really developed my long distance endurance: prior to Bournemouth, the last time I ran over 12 miles was St Albans Half Marathon in June so my expectations were low. I knew that I was comfortable running at speeds below 6.45 min/mile, but I had no idea of for how long, so my half PB of 1.27.51, set in March, looked pretty safe. Anything south of 1.30 would be an excellent marker of overall fitness and a good guide for future training.

At the start, I bumped into a fellow RR member who I’ve run with before once or twice; he’s a very strong runner so I was surprised to learn that he’d yet to run sub-1.30 for a half and that that was his goal for the day. As such, I offered to run together and see how we got on.

It turned out to be a great strategy – I’m a bit of a loner when it comes to running so it was a great experience to work with someone else for once and keep each other motivated for the run. It gets tough sometimes out there, so having someone else to either hang on to or to keep pushing you can be a real boost, and this was one of those days.

I knew a little bit about the course ahead of the start, so a steep climb around the 8 mile mark was no surprise to me – with that in mind, I was happy to go for a strong start and put some time in the bank, with no real plans for a negative split and a faster second half than first.

That said, I didn’t expect to feel so comfortable from start to, in all honesty, the finish. I’d been keeping an eye on my pace and heart rate throughout the race so I knew I was within my comfort zone, but I hadn’t realised until the last quarter of a mile that a new PB could be within my grasp.

With that in mind, I managed to turn up my speed in the final throws of the race and clock a much-better-than-expected time of 1.27.56 – only five seconds off my best. In the process, I’m very pleased that my fellow Redway Runner clocked a massive new PB, coming in around 20 seconds behind me in the end.

IMG_0016.JPGAfter the race with a better-than-expected time for me and big PB for Rich: today was a very good day.

It just goes to show what can be possible when you put together all the correct ingredients: a good mix of training, the right preparation and a relaxed mindset. I very rarely run at this kind of pace (averaging 6.43 min/mile), but then you shouldn’t spend all your time at your target race pace: the key is to build a solid, reliable foundation of fitness with base training and then develop the speed on top with quality work beyond your current capabilities.

Everything I’ve read recently suggests that spending too much time working in between these two zones is a one-way ticket to injury and boredom.

Overall, I massively enjoyed the Bournemouth away trip – and I’m hugely enthused for running more half marathons in future. Watch this space.