Crushed

Back to my old routine of track on Tuesday with a session start time of 7:30pm on the button. That would make me a little late for darts but the running takes priority at the moment...

After a 4.5km warm-up it was long intervals for the marathon runners. The session was 4/8/8/4 lappers and I have to say the prospect of running 24 laps on the track wasn't filling me with glee. Very cold temperatures but dry with very little wind. The plan was to run them at 10km race pace...

On the first lap I noticed it was a bit slippery on the approach of the final bend. Then every lap thereafter it got worse as the temperatures continued to drop. Midway through the session it was very hard to run quick and I was having to take baby steps on the bends to avoid slipping over. I found a good line in lane 2 on the back straight but the remaining part of the lap was very slippery. I soldiered on but the sensible thing to do would have been to pull the pin. I was wearing my racing flats which can't have much grip but I have to say I've never had a problem with them in the past - even when the track has been wet.

Here are the times:

5:19,10:36,10:50,5:23 (recovery of 90/120/90 secs)

Yes I slowed as I went from runner to ice-skater. I finished the session barely out of breath. Oh well, we've been bloody lucky with the winter here so I can't really complain.

I finished up with a 3.9km warm-down. All up 18kms for the day.

Darts in the evening. No league match this week replaced with an internal singles competition to determine the top 4 players in the pub to go through to the league finals. The overall result was very tight with 4 of us tied in 2nd place on equal points. Basically another comp now required to decide the final 3 to get selected!