I have been running for many years and now and then I am lucky enough to celebrate a new personal best time. Today I ran Gosport half marathon for the third year in a row. The weather at this race is never kind, but this was the closest it has been to being called off. This combined with my man flu didn’t make for a good race.
I’m sure by now most of you know that Solent University are helping me with next year’s challenge. I have an awesome trainer who is going above and beyond to help me. I know i’m not the easiest client as I tend to question everything and I might moan a bit about some aspects of the training plan. This is only because it’s so far outside of my comfort zone. I do trust him fully, but it has been hard to believe in a process I don’t normally follow.
We had a chat about a plan for today at our last training session and decided that if it was windy to run at a 9 minute mile pace. This was mainly because I am booked in for a V02 max test on Tuesday evening. We didn’t want to mess that test up by me pushing myself to the limit today. This was where I let the team down a bit!
Before today’s race I spoke to lots of club mates about how I was doing a steady 9 minute mile pace. I was intending to stick to the plan but then the race started. I have honestly never and I mean NEVER felt so comfortable when running, I knew I would be in trouble but I didn’t care, even into the wind, up inclines I was in the zone. This has to be down to the last 5 weeks of training with Matt, yes I said 5 weeks!
Matt has stripped away all the mileage from my workouts and had me doing weights with the bigger boys at the gym. He is happy when I tell him my track, bike or swim sessions are pushing me to the limit. I have done exercises in the past 5 weeks I would have never attempted in the past. But it works and this is how much it works. Last year I posted a 01:58:08 time but today I posted 01:47:51. If I can do that with just 5 weeks help, I can’t wait to see the difference by April.
If you are looking to improve times or fitness levels I can highly recommend Matt. He is a really nice guy and he knows his stuff.
Thank You Matt.
