September 4 - Swim and Tempo Run

Holidays, sickness and work had meant no swimming for a couple of weeks which is disappointing. I was worried that the progress made in July could all have been lost.
So my first swim was to be an easy session focused on the rotation and bilateral breathing that had been going well.
I arrived at the pool and was surprised how quiet it was. Schools are back and it means the lanes are less congested.
I kicked off with an easy 4 lengths of crawl and breast stroke and then moved onto drills. Starting with breathing to the off-side, one-arm lengths and then bilateral breathing. It was all a bit rusty but what can you expect. To finish I through a couple of quick intervals, those got the arms burning but I’m not sure for all the effort that I was much quicker. Anyway it was good to get back in the pool.

The evening was lovely and I was delighted Adrian aka Lazarus was able to join me for the tempo run. We kicked off at his house and set off for the top of the Nicky line at a low pace. This was a bit painful as it was slow and Adrian was gagging for a decent paced run. After the warm up it was 24 mins on Zone 4 but within minutes I was in Zone 5 and Adrian reported we were doing 6.40’s. We slowed to 7.10 and the heart rate tottered between zones 4 & 5. The new pace was easy and I focused on form and short fast strides. I noticed I was taking 2 steps for almost every one of Adrian’s. We turned off the Nicky Line at the wood and immediately felt the effort increase as we hit the incline. I felt fine and kept the pace up. We moved through the fields and then down towards the manor house. As we turned off down the lane to the park I felt the pace hurting for the first time. Adrian at that point states I look comfortable, which was encouraging as I looked relaxed and held my form but I was feeling it. We finished the lane but instead of taking the downhill to the sports centre we did a sharp right and headed back up towards the Manor House. This was uphill and into the wind, and to keep the pace up was a massive effort. The clock ticked 24 mins just after the Manor and from there it was a slow jog and recovery back to Adrian’s.
Overall we covered 3.37miles in 24 mins which was an average of 7.08’s. It felt very comfortable apart from the end and gives hope of a decent Herts10k if I keep healthy.