Week 8

Week 8......

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
19th Feb	Rest day
20th Feb	12.43	20.00	02:03:41	09:54	6.1	15	16	1660	4	170
21st Feb	Rest day
22nd Feb	4.00	6.43	00:49:15	12:19	4.9	82	81	381	1	131
23rd Feb	Rest day
24th Feb	11.00	17.70	02:09:35	11:47	5.1	324	319	1135	1	137
25th Feb	Rest day
Week 8	27.43	44.14	05:02:31			421	416	3,176
Week 7	35.87	57.73	06:41:54			829	927	4,444
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	243.52	391.92	1 day 22:24:39			5,253	5,299	28,956
To go	1,006.48	1,624.08

Just 3 sessions this week.

I could really feel the effects of Saturday's 20k race in my legs on Sunday so took a rest day, and they were still sore/tight on Monday so I just did a short 4 mile easy (zone 1) session.

I did consider taking the rest of the week off but I knew I wasn't going to get much walking in this weekend so, to keep my miles up, I did one of my 11 mile loops on Wednesday.

So here we are, pretty much 2 months into the challenge and 1/5th complete.  If I can maintain this level of mileage I should reach my goal at the end of October providing nothing goes wrong.

Entries opened for the 50km Fireman's walk this week.  This is a great event that follows the middle third of the Parish Walk route from Peel to Ramsey (the only difference is a slight variation at Andreas, and you don't need to cross over to Lezayre church).

I would highly recommend taking part in this event if your Parish target is Peel or beyond.  The first 6 miles are up and down, but once you reach Kirk Michael it's flat pretty much all the way to the finish.  The 2 short climbs near the Lhen, and through Bride are really the only ones worth mentioning.

It's definitely an easier 31 miles than the first 31 miles of the Parish walk as you don't have Ballakillowey or the Sloc to deal with. 

If your Parish target is Peel, completing the Fireman's walk will give you a huge confidence boost. 

If your Parish target is beyond Peel then it's an ideal opportunity to practice that 'middle third', so when you get there on the day you will know in your mind that you have already completed that section once so you can do it again, albeit a little slower.

It is also a great opportunity to practice your eating and drinking over such long distance, finding out what does and doesn't work for you.  It's also good practice for your support drivers, especially if they haven't provided support before and are the same people that will support you in the Parish walk.  

I mentioned in a previous post that I have booked my travel and accommodation for Rotterdam on 14/15th May but I hadn't yet decided which distance to enter.  I have pretty much ruled out the 100 miles because it is too close to the Parish walk, although it does seem a shame to take a few days out of work to travel there and not give the 100 a go.

Rotterdam is only 3 weeks after the Fireman's walk, so rather than doing another 50k I'm seriously considering entering the 50 mile instead.  I think this is the right distance to do the weekend justice, and providing I don't push myself too hard then I'm confident 5 weeks is enough to recover before the start of the Parish Walk.

I have never raced 50 miles before so at least it will be a PB (providing I finish!) but the real reason for choosing 50 miles over 50km is for the chance to be awarded the 'Kennedy Friend' pin with engraved number. 

After all, we only do it for the awards, don't we?

Week 7 + 20k

Week 7..

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
12th Feb	Rest day
13th Feb	16.62	26.75	02:59:08	10:47	5.6	383	389	2271	4	159
14th Feb	8.25	13.28	01:36:10	11:39	5.1	168	259	821	1	132
15th Feb	Rest day
16th Feb	Rest day
17th Feb	11.00	17.70	02:06:36	11:30	5.2	278	279	1352	2	143
18th Feb	Rest day
Week 7	35.87	57.73	06:41:54			829	927	4,444
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	216.09	347.78	1 day 17:22:08			4,832	4,883	25,780
To go	1,033.91	1,668.22

Training didn't quite go to plan last week. 

On Sunday I was going to take a short walk from Onchan down into Douglas to pick my car up, which had been left there from the night before, but I felt better than expected despite the tough session (walking!) the previous morning so took the longer route out to Liverpool Arms, down into Groudle and back into Douglas along the Onchan coast road. 

It was the first time I have taken that loop in a clockwise direction and it was really enjoyable.  It's largely flat and downhill except for just 2 climbs, firstly out from Whitebridge up onto the Liverpool Arms straight, and then a longer climb from Groudle up to 'windy corner' at the top of the coast road.

I was pleased to stay well within my Zone 1 range (125-135) for the full 8.25 miles at a decent enough pace too.

Monday 15th was a planned rest day, and with the 20k coming up on Saturday I was hoping to just do a couple of shorter walks on the Tuesday and Thursday.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't particularly favourable on Tuesday night so I gave it a miss and instead opted to do one of my longer 11 mile loops on Wednesday and have 2 days recovery before the 20k.

I was really tempted to do an easy 4.13 miles on Thursday to record my highest week at 40 miles but decided against it.  I am already just ahead of target for my 2016 KM challenge so no point pushing with a race coming up.

I think 20k has to be one of the most difficult distances to race.  It certainly is for me anyway.

5k and 10k races are tough too because they are at a quicker pace, but they only last for around 30-60 minutes so you just hang in as best you can.

50k, 85 mile, 100 mile are no breeze either, but they are raced at a much slower pace (for me) and come with a whole host of different challenges and pain points that you have to push through.

I think what makes 20k so tough is it's a 'short' enough distance to make you want to push really hard, and then after a couple of miles you realise you need to try and maintain that pace for another 90 minutes or so!

I was really hoping to get under 2 hours today which means, ideally, I needed to reach the 10k mark in just under 1 hour as there is pretty much no chance I could race a negative split in a 20k (e.g. first 10k in 62 mins and second 10k in <58 mins).

Things started well for the first couple of miles and I was walking slightly quicker than target pace, but then I just started to lose energy in my legs.  They just started to feel really heavy and I could feel my pace slowing right down.  With 9 miles still to go I knew the next 90 minutes were not going to be much fun!

In addition to losing energy early in the race I also started to struggle from around 5k with a stitch in my lower left ab area.  This really didn't help matters and persisted on and off pretty much to the end!

I have a feeling I made the wrong breakfast choice today (porridge, toast with peanut butter and a large coffee about 3 hours before the race).  I'm usually fine with that before a longer (slower) walk, but maybe it wasn't the best choice for a fast 20k. 

It just didn't settle right at all and I think it was partly to blame for the stitch and also the lack of 'quick release' energy to the legs.

I haven't seen the official results yet, but my unofficial (Garmin) 5k splits were something like this:

5k        29 minutes
10k      30 minutes  (So still just under the hour with 59:?? for 10k, so I'm happy with that)
15k      32 minutes  (race time 1:31:??)
20k      32 minutes   unofficial (Garmin) race time of 02:03:41

Despite the loss of 'umph' in the legs, and the persistent stitch, the drop off's aren't too bad.

My final unofficial time of 2:03:41 is 1:44 seconds off my PB from 2 years ago, which is not too bad over a 2 hour race, so I'm happy enough.  Of course I'm a little disappointed I didn't break the 2 hours, but given I only broke 1 hour for 10k two weeks ago (for 2 years) I think I was a little enthusiastic to think I could do 2 back to back sub 60's just 2 weeks later !

Congratulations to everyone who took part today, but in particular a huge well done to Ray Beattie who himself finally broke the magic 60 minutes for 10k after missing out by just a few seconds in the last 2 races.

Finally a big thank you to all of the organisers, marshals, judges, timekeepers, lap scorers, photographers and supporters for giving up your time today, especially in the cold, wind and rain.

Today's performance has definitely not changed my view on the 'train slower to race faster' principle, and I will continue to stick closely to my heart rate training plan, but I will definitely try and add 1 faster session per week, be that a quicker 'tempo' (zone 3) walk or a hill/interval (zone 4) session.

I can take away from today that my long, slow training is definitely building my stamina and endurance, however if I want to improve my 10k and 20k times I do need to add a bit of speed into the mix.

How many miles?

A few people have asked me if they really need to do the number of miles that I am doing in order to complete the Parish Walk and my initial response is no, absolutely not.

While finishing the Parish Walk and New York Centurion are my two main goals this year, I also have my overall challenge to walk 2016 KM (1,250 miles), so that's why my mileage is higher than usual.

"How many should I be doing then?" is the next question, which unfortunately is something I cannot answer.

Some people are quite happy putting in lots of miles whereas others just like to go out a couple of times per week. 

Legend has it that one veteran parish walker doesn't do any training at all and considers last years Parish to be enough training for this years Parish.  I won't name them just in case it's not true...and of course to keep the legend more mysterious.....

It's not just the physical side of training either.  Knowing you have done lots of training miles can give you a big mental boost on the day.  You feel ready, well prepared.  On the flip side if you think you haven't done enough training it can have a negative mental impact.

The thing is, everyone is different. 

Regardless of how many training miles you have done, there are so many other things that play a part on the day.  The weather, the food you eat, the unexpected blister that pops up somewhere never seen before in training and so on. 

It's how all of these factors come together on the day, and how you manage them, that in my opinion plays a bigger part than the physical training itself.

I don't have all of my Garmin data for 2011 so the table below shows how many training miles I did each month up until the day of the Parish from 2012 onwards.

I have shown both walking and running miles.

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Total	Parish
2012	46 / 6	71 / 6	91 / 8	95 / 9	85 / 5	51 / 0	439 / 34	19:00:29
2013	29 / 7	67 / 5	55 / 16	103 / 0	130 / 12	41 / 0	425 / 40	18:36:28
2014	108 / 15	130 / 0	143 / 0	75 / 8	68 / 20	34 / 0	558 / 43	Retired Maughold (67 miles)
2015	30 / 42	58 / 74	38 / 68	20 / 93	55 / 53	18 / 0	219 / 330	19:20:56

Couple of interesting things here:

In 2013 I did slightly less miles than the previous year (only 14!) yet managed a 24 minute improvement to record my current PB.  I also completed the 100 mile Centurion event about 6 weeks later.

In 2014 I significantly upped the miles in January, February and March, but then had quite a big drop in April and June.  In total I walked 133 miles more in 2014, yet retired in Maughold less than 20 miles from the end.   Was this because I didn't do enough in April and May?  Who knows.

In 2015 it was my lowest walking mileage by nearly 50% at 219 miles, although a significant increase in running mileage (I was training for the London Marathon that year).  I did finish, but recorded my second slowest time of 19:20:56, just 20 minutes off my debut time of 19:40:00 in 2011.

The heat certainly played a part in my 2014 and 2015 performances, but maybe I did too much in the first 3 months of 2014 and not enough in the next 2 months, or maybe it was just too much in total at 558.

I am already way above these numbers in 2016 (due to the challenge) so I'm really hoping 2016 is not going to be another retirement.

So in conclusion, I have finished the Parish with just 425 miles of walking training (if I ignore 2015 due to the running), yet failed to finish with 558.  Maybe my sweet spot is somewhere in between, or maybe luck was on my side in 2013 and not in 2014. 

I think really you just need to train in a way that makes you feel happy and comfortable, both mentally and physically, and just hope the dice roll the right way on the day.

Week 6 Progress

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
5th Feb	5.2	8.37	01:00:14	11:35	5.2	122	118	581	1	137
6th Feb	7	11.27	01:24:46	12:06	5.0	207	245	790	1	134
7th Feb	6.22	10.01	00:58:37	09:23	6.4	1	1	746	4	166
8th Feb	Rest day
9th Feb	3.2	5.15	00:37:36	11:46	5.1	22	25	329	1	129
10th Feb	Rest day
11th Feb	3.2	5.15	00:34:58	10:54	5.5	43	54	384	2	147
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	180.22	290.05	1 day 10:40:14			4,003	3,956	21,336
To go	1,069.78	1,725.94

As mentioned in my last blog, I stuck to the plan and just put in two very light sessions after the 10k race on Sunday to record a lower mileage week.

Both of these were along Douglas promenade which is just over 5k if you start right at the Summerland end and go around the TT Café by the bottleneck car park.  Interestingly, despite starting and stopping my watch in exactly the same place, I record almost double the elevation gain and loss on the second session.

Despite following a heart rate training plan to stop myself going too quick, I still like to push to the higher end of the zone I am in, so during the first session on Tuesday I was determined to keep in the middle of zone 1 (my range is 125-135), so was pleased with my average of 129. 

If I am honest I was still feeling Sundays 10k race in my legs, especially the top of the quads, so I was glad it was just a short zone 1 session.

The second session on Thursday was a bit of an odd one.  The plan was to do exactly the same and average around 130 and I was fine for the first mile but then found myself wanting to walk a bit quicker so rather than slow right down I just let my heart rate slip into Zone 2, and then into Zone 3 to record an overall average of 147 which is the lower end of my Zone 3 rate.  I have classed it as Zone 2 above because most of my time was spent under Zone 3. 

The problem with a training session that jumps around the zones is that it makes it very difficult to repeat that session in the future in terms of comparing like for like.

Today (Saturday 13th) I joined a group of much faster walkers than me, including the current Parish Walk record holder Richard Gerrard, previous joint record holder (with Richard) Vinny Lynch and 4 time back to back winner Jock Waddington.

If that line up wasn't enough to make my legs hurt before we even started, we were also joined by Dave Walker (2nd or 3rd in last years Parish walk (sorry Dave, Parish Walk website is down at the moment so I can't check the stats!), Sam Fletcher (2nd in last years End to End), Andrew Dawson (very impressive Parish PB of around 16 hours 50 minutes) and finally new, and rapidly improving walker, James Quirk.

We headed out from the NSC along the access road and the route took us up through Baldwin, up Skollag road to join the TT course just on the outskirts of Douglas, left towards Hillberry and then a right onto the back road towards Little Mill, through Onchan towards King Edward Bay golf club, left again towards Groudle and then a right to bring us back into Douglas along the Onchan coast road and then a final push along Douglas Promenade, finishing by the TT café.

I was okay for the first 6 miles, but around mile 7 the guys decided to pick up the pace and I just had to give it everything to just about keep them in sight.  All that kept me going was the thought of a bacon and egg bap at 'The Caff' afterwards. 

Fortunately the pace would ease back every mile or so to allow everyone to group up.  If it wasn't for that they would have finished their breakfast and probably left before I even arrived!

A total distance of 16.62 miles according to my Garmin, walking time of 2:59:08 and an average pace of 10:47 per mile (5.6 mph).  Needless to say I was totally finished at the end!  It's certainly my fastest (and longest) training session of 2016.

It's incredible to think some of these guys average a quicker pace over the entire 85 mile Parish Walk. 

Now you might be asking what heart rate zone this was in, and I can tell you the first half was  Zone 3, and the second half well into Zone 4 to give me an average of 159.

These are certainly not the Zones I should be in for a long walk, but I knew that before I started.  The Manx Harriers open is next Saturday and I have entered the 20k, so because my plan for next week will again just be a couple of short easy walks I was happy to get out and have a really tough session today.

I am now 6 weeks into my training plan and it's important to mix it up and throw some variety into it rather than just repeating the same long slow pace week after week.  Not only is it good for the body to keep it on it's toes but it's good for the mind too, not just to relieve the boredom that can come with hours of solo training but to build the mental toughness to push on even when the legs are screaming for you to stop.

I'd love to do more of these sessions but need to try and limit myself to every few weeks if I'm to give the heart rate training the best chance of working for me. Or, if you read my earlier post on Aerobic Base Training, to allow myself to squeeze every bit of improvement I can out of that tube of toothpaste.

 

10k Race... results are in !

I did it !

For the first time in 2 years I completed a 10k race under the hour, recording a time of 58:37, making it my second quickest 10k time (my PB is 56:58)

This is nearly 4.5 minutes off my previous time 4 weeks ago at Ronaldsway.

To be fair the NSC is a faster course, and it wasn't quite as windy today compared to 4 weeks ago, but there was still a noticeable enough wind down the back straight so I'm still very pleased to get such a big improvement.

What makes this more important to me is the fact I only did 1 'hard' hill session during the past 4 weeks.  All of my other training has been easy/steady heart rate training in zone 1 and 2.

It does make me wonder what the improvement could have been if I threw in just one zone 3/4 session each week, so this is definitely something I will start doing.

There are many other factors that account for this improvement, such as dropping a few extra pounds, so it's very difficult to say exactly how much of this improvement is due to sticking closely to this Heart Rate Training plan compared to any kind of training plan.

If I had a time machine I would love to roll the clocks back 4 weeks but this time follow my usual plan of walking everywhere as quickly as possible, but I'm reasonably confident I would not have recorded such a big improvement this time around.

Heart rate training is definitely working for me, and with today's performance I believe it's a real testament to the phrase "train slower to race faster".

So that's it for the Winter League for another year.  A big well done to everyone who took part over the past 5 races, and a big congratulations to the league winners. 

I would like to echo the comments made during the final presentation and add my own personal thanks to Up and Running for the sponsorship, and of course to all of the organisers, marshals, time keepers and supporters, without whom these events would not be able to happen.

The next walking event on the calendar is the Manx Harriers Open in 2 weeks time (20th Feb), but all entries must be made in advance and close on Sunday 14th, so less than 1 week to get your entries in!

I have entered my least favourite distance, the 20k, so I can't wait to once again see how heart rate training is working for me.  From struggling for 2 years to get under the hour for 10k it would be unbelievable if I could get under 2 hours for 20k (my 20k PB is 02:01:57, also 2 years ago).

Week 5 Progress

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
29th Jan	Rest day
30th Jan	15.0	24.14	02:54:39	11:39	5.2	364	356	1,681	2	144
31st Jan	Rest day
1st Feb	Rest day
2nd Feb	5.2	8.37	01:02:34	12:02	5.0	118	114	584	1	133
3rd Feb	Rest day
4th Feb	7.50	12.07	01:27:13	11:38	5.2	189	186	970	2	141
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	155.40	250.11	1 day 06:04:03			3,608	3,513	18,506
To go	1,094.60	1,765.89

Lowest mileage week of the challenge so far, but still just ahead of the 24.03 mile per week average that I need. 

The lower mileage was partly because I could only get out 3 times last week, but also because it's the final round of the Winter Walking League at the NSC on Sunday so I didn't want to overdo it in training.

However, I think my heart rate is trying to tell me I'm overdoing it as my last 4 sessions have been rather frustrating.

On Tuesday (2nd Feb) I went for an easy 5.2 mile walk but I couldn't stop my heart rate from jumping well into zone 2 and even zone 3 in places.   Even on the downhills my HR was way above where it should have been, and I was barely moving.

I often experience spikes with the monitor for the first mile until I work up a bit of a sweat and the contact improves between the chest strap and the skin, but the spikes lasted the full session, resulting in an overall pace of 12:02, considerably slower than my last zone 1 easy walk which was 11:42, and 2 miles longer!

On Thursday (4th) I set out on one of my usual 7.50 mile loops, and with the Winter Walking League on Sunday I decided to make this another easy session.  The loop followed exactly the same first 2 miles as Tuesday, and exactly the same thing happened with my heart rate.

The strange thing is I felt absolutely fine, I wasn't breathing heavy or struggling in any way, it really did feel an 'easy' level of effort.  At the 2 mile point, rather than cursing the heart rate monitor for the next 5.5 miles I decided to just make it a zone 2 walk instead. 

My average pace was better (11:38 which is okay given the first 2 miles were easy), but if you compare that to my 15 mile long walk on Saturday (which was also zone 2), it was only 1 second per mile quicker. 

Curious as to what is happening, on Friday (5th) I repeated the exact same 5.2 mile loop as Tuesday, again in zone 1, and exactly the same thing happened.  The last 3/4 of a mile of that route is up hill, so this time I just decided to push hard all the way to the top. 

What I was hoping to see was my heart rate very quickly hit the max and maybe even go way above it.  This would confirm something dodgy was going on with the equipment.  What actually happened is I flew up that hill probably as quick as I have ever done, but my HR stabilised around 160, only getting close to the max as I neared the last hundred meters or so. 

After that I decided it still must be the monitor and concluded the battery must be failing. 

Unfortunately I had no spare batteries for it, but I had something better...  a brand new identical chest strap that came with my old Garmin 305 (the strap I was using came from my very first Garmin 50 and is about 7 years old!, and I have another unused spare that came with my Garmin 310XT).

Convinced I had found the problem I went out again this morning and followed another of my regular 7.5 mile loops out past Onchan Head, past Groudle out to the Liverpool Arms and back into Onchan.

Again the plan was to stay in the easy zone 1, but exactly the same thing happened !!  Today is the 3rd time this year I have followed that loop in zone 1, and my average pace was 12:06, down from 11:42 two weeks ago !

Static electricity generated from clothes can be a cause of odd behaviour with a monitor, but I haven't been wearing anything different.

Your resting heart rate (RHR) is always a very good indication of how well recovered you are from a previous session and can be an easy way to quickly spot if you are over training.  I monitor my RHR several times a day and it has actually dropped from 52 at the start of the year to a reasonably consistent 49 now.  I have even recorded 46 a few times this week, so I'm definitely getting fitter and it doesn't indicate over training.

The lower RHR does make understanding why it's jumping so quickly all the more difficult though!

Anyway, my unofficial conclusion is that I have over trained and even though my RHR is perfectly fine, my muscles are probably just tired and haven't quite caught up yet.

In the first 5 weeks I have walked 155.40 miles.  In the first 5 weeks of 2015 I ran/walked just 101 miles, so a 50% increase this year.

Taking time out to recover is essential in any training plan.  You don't actually improve your fitness through the act of training itself, but rather during the recovery period afterwards when your muscles repair and rebuild stronger.  Not letting them repair is an open invitation for injury.

I often read training plans that are built around a 4-6 week cycle of progressively increasing distance/intensity each week (although by no more than 10% per week), and then taking a really easy recovery week (no more than 50% of that final weeks mileage) before starting the 4-6 week cycle again.  When you start the next cycle you don't just jump in from where you left off though but rather pick it up from about week 3 or 4 (if that makes sense?)

A very simple example based on weekly mileage may look like this :

Week           Mileage
1                   20
2                   22
3                   25
4                   27
5                   30
6                   15  (cut mileage and intensity by 50%)

1                   25  (start around week 3 or 4)
2                   27
3                   30
4                   33
5                   37
6                   18   (cut mileage and intensity by 50%)

1                   30
2                   33
etc etc 

So, after the final 10k race of the winter league tomorrow I am going to take it easy for the rest of the week, and by that I don't mean doing nothing at all but rather doing just 2 short sessions (about 5k) at a very easy pace, let's call it zone 0.5, just to keep the legs moving.

I was really hoping for a decent improvement from my last 10k time at Ronaldsway (01:03:01), but given I have been out training back to back for the last 3 days (19.7 miles) trying to figure out what's wrong with the HR monitor I really don't think it's going to happen now!

I have purposely not done any speed work since the last round (except for that hill session 3 weeks ago to assess my max walking heart rate) in an attempt to prove (to myself at least) that to race faster you really do need to train slower.

I haven't dipped under 60 minutes for a 10k for about 2 years now, so if I get anywhere close to that (having done no speed work) then I'll be very pleased with how my training is going so far this year.