Stationary Cycling - 23/10/10

After completing the Hamilton Harriers Half Marathon on October 10th 2010 I picked up an achilles heel injury. It is still sore, so I have switched from running to indoor cycling and I cycle 42km indoors on my stationary bike(26 miles) and wear my heart rate monitor to maintain my fitness level. It is tough going both physically and mentally, but I still enjoy it nonetheless.

Hamilton Harriers Half Marathon Championships - 10th October 2010

Time - 1hr 23mins 53secs. Average heart rate - 164bpm. Conditions - very windy in some exposed stretches. The two club training sessions (Tues - 100m X 10 & 200m X 10) and (Thurs - 3 X 10mins at 10K pace with 2mins slower run recovery) seemed to sap my legs going into this race. I simply could not raise my average heart rate above 164bpm no matter how hard I tried. My achilles tendon was sore prior to this race and I will need to rest it now :-(

2010 St Andrew's Hospice 10K - 3/10/10

Time - 37mins 55secs.

Conditions - a slight drizzle with no wind (ideal running conditions). Two hills which caused my pace to deviate away from the 6 min/mile pace. Course splits are in statute units i.e. miles instead of kilometres.
Average Heart Rate - 170bpm.

St Andrew's Hospice 6K Schools Challenge - 2010

My time today was 21mins 52secs - A PB! I finished 3rd in the teacher category behind Steven Allan and winner David Gardiner. David and I trained together from 87-91 in Moray House College of Physical Education. Dave has always been a class athlete and evidently still is. He won today in around 19mins 20secs or thereabouts.

Cumbernauld 10K - Sunday 12/9/10

Chip time today was 37mins 33secs. Noticeable head wind in certain sections, but not too bad. I wore my heart rate monitor, which is the first time I've worn one in a 10K race for ages. My heart rate (HR) average was 169bpm, which felt reasonably comfortable. I ran at about 172 HR for large sections of this race. At one stage my HR reached 180bpm, but only for a brief period. I think only one or two people passed me in the race. I even caught one of them again in the last 200m. I had the benefit of wearing a HR monitor and it helped me to pace my race properly. My Garmin measured this a tiny bit short (that makes for a pleasant change). Splits are measured in miles, not kilometres.

2010 Great Scottish Run - Glasgow Half Marathon

My Garmin recorded the race distance as 13.25 miles, instead of 13.1 miles. Chip time was 1hr 23mins 36secs (PB!). I must not have 'run the line' or maybe my watch is rubbish at picking up the satellites. It was nonetheless a PB today, although I will always contest that my unofficial PB was clocked last November (2009) at the Hamilton Harriers Half Marathon Championship, where Neil Robbins and I clocked 1.22.00, but since that was an unofficial race it does not count, so my time today I suppose consitutes an official PB. I was happy with my race strategy, since I followed my heart rate throughout and that acted as a good guide for me, as I was able to pace the race properly. My average heart rate (HR) was 168pm, which I knew was my lactate threshold HR anyway. The weather was quite hot and a touch windy in places. No complaints today however!

Paisley Vision 10K - 29/8/10

My time today was 37mins 42secs. It was very windy (20mph), especially for the first 5K. I ran behind Brian Douglas (Bellahouston Harriers) for a large section of the race. Brian's club mate Mark Paterson ran a stormer and passed me at the 8K mark. He clocked a PB today! I dropped off the 6 minute per mile pace at around the 6K mark and faded by about 4 secs per km till the finish. I now have a really sore set of ribs, which I picked up on the judo mat on Friday. My small toe is also badly bruised. I really should be sensible and stick only to running. Judo, however, is a massive buzz and my first love as a sport.