I’m putting up a hook to hang my hopes upon, there’s a fella coming round to stick the gas back on, and if truth be told now that Thelma’s gone...it makes the room look bigger

Big week training wise but let’s start with the North West Relays. Four counties sent their representatives over to my backyard for the 4 stage relay. The course itself was two laps inside the Park, roughly 3.3 miles/5.25k. The weather all over the place on Saturday, we experienced wind, rain and glorious sunshine in the afternoon. PLS had a great turn out with three teams in both the ladies and mens event.

I was selected for the “A” team with new father Carl Wright running the 1st let, Martin Swensson running the 2nd, James McNally running the 3rd and YT running the anchor. Carl ran a good 1ST leg and we were in 38th place overall and 6th for Merseyside. Liverpool Running Club’s Ian Magill was around 1 minute ahead of Martin but after 1 lap Martin had cut a whopping 40 seconds out of his lead. Martin finished 13 seconds behind him and James Mc overtook LRC’s 3rd leg runner and opened the gap of 1 min 23 secs for me on the last leg.

St Helens and Sutton team were now only 19 seconds ahead, I quickly overtook their 4th leg and set my sights on and Liverpool Pembroke, whom I started 1 min 47 seconds behind. The first 2 miles I really pushed hard and felt it by the 3rd mile. The Liverpool Pembroke 4th leg runner was nowhere to be seen, and although I’d cut their lead by 39 seconds we finished 4th in Merseyside. A great result for a little club like us and with a bit more luck it could have been 3rd – I’m sure on another day we all could have ran faster but it’s still a great achievement.

From my own point of view, my training has been heavy this week with a whopping 93 miles clocked up, the furthest I’ve ever run in a week. I had three big double sessions on Mon/Tue/Thu then a 23 miler Sunday at 8 min mile pace that felt easy.

Northern Relays next are next up with a short trip to Warrington next Saturday. Doubt I’ll be running 90+ miles, maybe hang back on the big double sessions and ease up from Thursday for the relays. Again, we’ve an outside chance of getting a team to the nationals and this should be another opportunity for team building leading up to the cross country season.

Last weeks training:

Monday - 6.5 miles road am - 5.5 miles road pm
Tuesday - 6.34 miles road am - 10.66 miles road pm
Wednesday - 10.50 miles (69:14) road am - 4 miles road pm with circuit class
Thursday - 4 mile tempo (6:30 pace) with 3 mile warm up/down am - 8 miles road pm
Friday - 5.25 road
Saturday - 3.3 miles relay with 3.45 mile warm up/down
Sunday - 23 miles road