British Indoor Grand Prix

I went into this race wanting to run faster than last week in the UK Champs/AAA's, ideally I was looking to run an overall personal best for 3k which would be under 8:04.8 and hopefully under 8 minutes if things went well.

I knew the race was going to be shifting up front, but I didn't think they would be going off at a 58 first lap! To the average spectator it makes us looks awful as they have no perception of the pace those guys are running at and I think the fact they went through the mile in 4 minutes says it all!!

I knew from the off I just had to run a sensible first kilometer and forget about what was going on up front, which I did. I tucked in behind Jonny, Neil and Mark and just got into a rhythm. I sensed Neil struggling a little so moved up a place and sat in going through the first km is around 2:36/7. then again around half way Jonny seemed to struggle a little as we passed the first mile in around 4:12 roughly so I then sat in behind mark. I knew I couldn't go any quicker than what we were going as it was unknown territory for me and we were hitting 63's which was ideal.

We reached 2k in 5:15 which was perfect as I was feeling good apart from the very dry mouth! It was then I think my lack of experience of running at the pace caught me out as I wasn't particularly tired, i wasn't overworking but I found myself beginning to get dropped around 3 or 4 laps to go. As soon as a gap opens up it become mentally tough and you begin to think of what's behind rather than what's in front.

I dug in deep and got round to the bell in 7:28/9 still on course for a sub 8 minute clocking. As I went through the bell Jonny came flying past me, I tried to latch on but he well and truly took off. I worked as hard as I could on that last lap and as I passed the line I heard the commentator in the arena say "and that's 8 minutes now," so I was sure I must have broken it!

I waited for the times to come up on the big screen and it wasn't to be this time round, 8:00.14 was my official time. I guess I just didn't kick hard enough on that last lap. I was disappointed to begin with but I remembered how hard I worked a couple years ago in session to run 8:04 and 8:06 and this time round I've done it off winter training so now I can't wait to get into the grove of summer work and see what surprises are in store on the track.

It's time to get back into hard training now as I have Nottingham Inter Counties in a couple weeks so time to get a few miles under my belt. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ryan