I'll do the race report after a brief desription of the current training I've been doing. Tuesday saw the start of the 30 mins winter efforts at the track. For the past two years, I've extremely fortunate to be allowed to train with Dave Evans group at the Liverpool Harriers . There's usually a good mix of runners in Dave group who are in and around my level, but in the main they are really top draw runners who I've learnt so much from. Tuesday session was a decent turn out with some runners still coming back from their track season break. The session was 6 mins followed by 4 x 1 min - repeated three times for the 30 mins in total.

It's always a tough session and even tougher to run the session as outlined by Dave. No matter what standard you are, running is comptetive and the interval sessions can turn into mini races all of their own. Sometimes it's difficult to hold back and run them sensibly, for example the six minutes 6 min efforts were meant to be ran at 10k pace but the temptation is to always run harder. I've found this hampers the session and you don't get the consistency and overall benefit. Less is more!

On Thursdays I've been hitting another 30 mins of tempo efforts with the Penny Lane lads. This is another relatively new session for me that I picked up from the Harriers which involves longer efforts ran at tempo race with short recoveries. With me racing the past four week, I've been swerving the long progression/tempo runs. Another really important change has been the 2 hour 16 or 17 miles runs I've been doing on the Sunday. I've always raced better with the long slow runs under my belt and I've been doing these for the majority of weekends.

My mileage has increased since the summer but it wasn't been as much as I've ran say leading up to the Blackpool Half Marathon in February when I felt as fit as I'd ever been.

Anyway another week, another race and my thrid trip North up the M6 in four weeks. I've only done two 10 mile races so this was an ideal opportunity to chalk another off. The Penny Lane skipper had layed on a mini bus for the team - there must be something in air at Blackpool because of the four races I've done their, I've always ran well. The race was a point to point run on a pancake flat water front and the weather forecast said the wind would be behind so I was confident of setting out at 5.50 mile pace.

After a bit of a hoo-haa getting to the start, I had a quick short warm up then the gun went and we charged up a short hit toward the North Pier. Skipper Dale set off with me and we found ourselves in the top 10 after the first mile. As turned at the pier and headed back towards Fleetwood I felt like I was jogging even though the garmin had me running 5.40 pace. Dale wasn't feeling good so eased off but I maintained the pace and picked off a few more runners.

I could still see the leader, followed by a group of runners then me in 8th. I passed through 5 miles in just over 29 mins and was still felling good - I decided not to push but maintain the 5.50ish pace and hope I could reel a few more runners.

I picked off two more runners with about 5k to go and although I was still feeling good I knew I'd have to start pushing the pace if I wanted to sneak under 58 and catch the 5th and 4th placed runner.

The course veered off the front with about 1.5 miles to go and surface wasn't as smooth as the previous 8+ miles. I still thought I could get the lad in 5th but it was really starting to pinch and annoyingly the course stated to weave a bit just when I needed the momentum. I pushed as hard as I could and come around a sharp turn to the finish with the clock visible and still in the low 57's.

I watched as the guy in 5th crossed in sub 58 but I couldn't make the cut. Not to worry though, I smashed my PB by 1 min and 18 seconds. I felt great pretty much all the way around and judged the pace very well. The PLS club record for v40 is one of many held by Nige Grant in 57.46 - I thought this was unacheivable but after Sunday I don't think it is.

It was a great to run such a strong race and time on the back of my poor run at Arley. I've got the half marathon at Wirral this Sunday, I'll be looking to PB again but now way I'll get Nige's v40 record of 75.03!

I'll have to think about how I train and recover this week, plus how I'll race the half. I felt great Sunday but it's my 5th race in 5 weeks and longest of the 5.