Competition

I feel almost guilty writing this but this week has been a very easy week, even if it did see me down at the track twice!

The mileage has dropped right down, although the two speed sessions were at a faster pace than we've been covering so far.  I enjoyed those sessions, probably because they weren't Yasso's!  Yasso's are repetitions of 800m fast with 400m recoveries - the club schedule starts at 2 reps and builds up to 10.  If you keep each rep steady, the idea is that your time in minutes will be your marathon time in hours (e.g. average 4mins per 800m equals a 4 hour marathon).  Going round the track for up to 8 miles is very boring though!
Our Tuesday session had us running reps of 3 minutes long, which gave us a place marker on the track to aim for each time.  Yesterday we did one minute bursts of speed (sub 7min mile pace!) with one minute recoveries.  I am enjoying the variety of this schedule as it stops you thinking "on no, it's Tuesday so it's that session".
I was one of the coaches at the club on Wednesday on the hills run.  We introduced a bit of competition by having everyone chase each other up the hill.  Sarah was crowned Queen of the Hills as no-one could catch her over 6 reps!  I always say I'm not competitive and that my aim is always a personal best, but someone once told me that had not to be true or I wouldn't keep pushing.  I have to admit my half marathon p.b. came when a colleague entered the same race and I didn't want to look rubbish compared to him (I beat him!).  I am aware of where I should sit in the finishing list at races and am driven to make sure I maintain my 'place'.  We do get satisfaction from finishing above our usual pecking order - I don't think Sarah will ever let Tina and Pam forget Suicide Six!  When it comes to London though, I'll definitely only be racing against the clock.