AAA 10km

Well where do I start with this race? The AAA 10km is usually the race in my season that everything is geared towards. The race where preparation starts weeks before hand, and the races leading up to it are there for the sole purpose of getting me ready to roll.

This years race was different. I wasnt fully prepared going into the championships, and to be honest wasnt in the sort of shape that I wanted to be. I think the race itself was a disaster too. When I heard in the winter that the AAA 10km was "coming home" as they said, being put back in the main championships, i thought "great, a chance to race my favoured event in front of a good crowd, with a championships atmosphere"..........how wrong was I? Putting the race at 10pm on the Friday night ripped the soul out of the race. I feel it did the complete opposite to what it was meant to, and that was make the race more appealing, and more prestigious.

The lads who turned up that night were promised quality pace makers, an international class field, and the chance to push on for big pb's. None of these materialised.

Anyways, on a personal note, as ive mentioned in my blog, the race just didnt go to plan for me. I felt relaxed and controlled, but wasnt able to cover the main break by Andy (vernon) and it was that break that totally blew the race apart. The rest of us were left to battle it out for silver and bronze. I was chuffed with the medal, and happy that I found something over the last 10 laps to help me tough it out.. but during those last few laps I did a lot of thinking. Every time i looked up and saw the gap growing between me and verno, i couldnt help but say to myself "I got to do something now, make a change in my approach, my training to bridge this difference"....the time was my slowest for three years, and weirdly enough was the exact same time as manchester road 10km ( well at least im consistant!). I got home and looked at my lap splits, and they didnt make for good reading. At some points in the race I slowed to 71/72 sec laps and there were points in the race where my lap times dropped considerably. Luckily for me Gerrard helped me out in the middle laps and took some of the pace, otherwise it may have been even slower.

I was planning to double up and do the 5km on the sunday, but since the race ive suffered with a sore left calf, so decided to watch instead. The 5km lads produced a great race and it was nice to be able to watch for a change and enjoy the athletics from the stands, without the pressure of competition-- although I would much rather be racing!

The next race for me will hopefully be the Berlin 10km, maybe a few cheeky road races in between, but the plan now is to just have some fun again with the races. I will keep the training ticking over, but aim to race now as much as possible and hopefully put the early seasons hard training into good use.

Thanks for reading.