Decided to give the 2011 Charmouth Challenge on July 2nd a go after all. Probably be my last, we’ll see.
Went out for the long run on Saturday, and as promised did the full Charmouth Challenge course. The good news was that I made it round in one piece, the bad news was that I recorded a time six and a half minutes slower than I did it in last July. That’s about thirty seconds per kilometer. No excuses, it was nice and cool, just had no energy. Didn’t even walk as much as last time. Maybe some of it’s mental too. Didn’t push it up the first hill thinking that I needed to conserve effort for later, but then never really got the benefit. I think the strategy on race day will be to just push all the way. Get the heart up to about 170bpm and keep it there. If it drops below 165 then I’m not trying hard enough!
Course was in reasonable shape. Some of the narrow bits on the way back down Stonebarrow could do with trimming back, plus the flat field at the far end between Filcombe Farm and Golden Cap could do with a strim. Although with 200 runners in front of me trampling through the scenary, neither should be a problem by the time I get there!
Will go out for a short run tomorrow (Tuesday) and again probably on Friday as I won’t have time on Saturday.
Need to find some local 10k races for August and September. Still thinking about the Weymouth 10 mile race in October.
