I completed three runs this week, a shortish run on Tuesday in which I tried to do some hill training, the Musketeers group run on Thursday and then a great finish at the Looe 10 Miler on Sunday.
The hill run on Tuesday was an attempt to replicate the hill training run I did ages ago with the Musketeers. Basically, I found a local hill, had a short warm up run to it and then tried to run up it as fast as possible a few times with a slower return loop to the bottom in between each climb. At the outset I had planned to do six repetitions but after three I was exhausted and so I cut the hills short and just went for a more gentle flatter mile or two to recover.
The Musketeers group run was the Crownhill route, one of the more gentle (flatter) club routes, although having said that, no club run is what a normal person would describe as flat. I completed it in the 9 minute mile group and felt very comfortable.
My final run of the week was on Sunday morning – the Looe 10 Miler, delightfully subtitled ‘Hillish and Hellish’. This was my first race at this distance and although I was expecting it to be hilly I was not expecting it to be so hilly that it was virtually impossible to run at times. The route climbed out of Looe to the west (first hill) then dived down into Talland Bay before a really steep climb up a track, a flatter loop, back down to the bay, a third steep climb back to the east and then a wonderful downhill finish for 2.5 miles into Looe. I ran the first 3 miles or so, including the first climb, with a fellow Musketeer, but at that point I kicked on. The descent into Talland Bay was an incredibly fast, almost uncontrollable rush downhill which took me into contact with a few other Musketeers, and after the really steep uphill I passed them. I really enjoyed the middle section of the run and managed to keep myself together on the final climb before an absolutely joyous long descent at a really good pace to the finish. I was delighted with how I felt on the run and my time, 1 hour 33 minutes ish, easily surpassed my optimistic target of 1 hour 40 minutes. The reward for completing the race was a pasty and a nice running shirt so all-in-all it was a thoroughly good event.
Tim O'Hare 