Back to the drawing board.

I'm currently in a 'must try harder' state of mind brought on, no doubt, by that ignominious defeat by Ian Barnes in last week's 7 mile race at Kilburn. Mind you, Ian is a very talented 'good for his age' athlete and actually won his age category in the corresponding race last year, but as a MV70 and still 7 seconds slower than my MV75 course record.  So what's gone wrong for me, or right for him? Well, it's obvious isn't it? He's been hotting up his training ready for moving up into the MV75 category, and taking it by storm, whereas I've been slacking and merely ticking over after my whiplash problems. So it's back to the drawing board, building up a good base mileage again, stretching, strengthening and, later, one or two visits to the track for some serious speedwork. 

So, what was I doing last week?  Well, it began gently with an enjoyable relaxed fartlek session incorporated into a four mile run along the River Wharfe after taking my partner's car to the garage for its annual MOT. This was followed by a hilly five miles on Tuesday, another five mile run on Thursday including 12x130m fast repeats, ten miles of steady riverbank running on Saturday and an eight mile fell run in somewhat horrendous condition on Sunday. Also, I began some core and back strengthening exercises and will increase them by two each day until I reach thirty of each.
In spite of zapping up the mileage my old legs feel in pretty good shape and I'm looking forward to my next race, a fast four miler on August 14th, to gauge whether there's any improvement in my pace/mile since Kilburn.  There'd better be!