An Extremely Proud Day

am: 35 mins very easy on trails at 1300m elevation
pm: 2k @ 5k pace, 12 mins, [200, 700, 200, 600, 200, 500, 200, 400 (90/2.30 rec)] 200s @ 15 pace, longer reps progressing down from 3k pace. Estimated times according to pace run on each rep – 6.02, 1.56, 1.33, 75, 59, ave 31.
14mi

We weren't due to meet until 0930 this morning so I got a bit of a lie for a change. I had some cereal and a coffee, got a quick wash and then headed to reception. The snow was still deep but the sun was out and forecast to stay so until the evening. The decision made was that we will drive down the mountain this morning to do an easy run while George and Spencer look for somewhere to do 2 minute reps. I got in Barkesy car and it was amazing that within 20 minutes of driving we were in green meadows! There appeared to be Spanish police watching us for a bit when we got out of the car but they finally cleared off. We ran very easily this morning and it was good to be down the mountain and totally out of the snow. It didn’t feel any different running at this elevation (3800ft) and to be totally honest I felt leggy for the first few minutes if anything. It was little more than shake out on a fantastic trail path we found. Danny treated us all to doughnuts from the petrol station and I just could not refuse so I suppose combined with a banana it was a good refuel... As we got a little lost on the drive this morning, we didn't finish the run until 1110 or so. After soup and a lot of bread for lunch I wanted to maximise recovery so I just stayed in bed until 3pm. The track had been cleared enough for us to our session but with timed reps rather than distance due to snow obstruction. I did my jog, drills & strides and felt like I had force myself to get up for the session. A huge thanks must go to Coach Li for trying to clear the inside as much as possible with a huge snow shovel! George said to keep relaxed and controlled on the 2k and go a little slower than 5k effort so not to affect the increasing speed of the rest of the session; so I did. I lost a bit of concentration in the middle and didn’t feel very good but I suddenly clicked into gear and felt great in the last 600 – yet again though I had to run a long rep in a hole! I felt decent today without ever feeling fantastic. I was a wound up for some reason beforehand and felt a little sick too. With the constant rescheduling and changing of the session I was just glad to finish what was a pretty good workout. Ryan McLeod recorded some of the session to do a Flotrack WoW type video which should be on UKA soon. I am looking forward to just stretching my legs out on the 2 minute reps on Saturday now after getting the job done today. My shins were a little tight afterwards and so was my right Achilles and my left foot! Presumably it is down to the snow and a hard, cold track. In short, I’m glad I have massage tomorrow evening. I jogged back to the apartment feeling fine. We had a pretty standard evening of sausage pasta for dinner followed by 'What Happens in Vegas' - a pretty terrible film. I also had a nice, hot bath which seemed to do wonders for my tired legs. I decided for whatever reason that I needed some sugar so walked to the vending machine and plumped for a good old-fashioned Kit-Kat. Last but by no means least, I today received the captaincy for the University of Birmingham cross country team for next year and I would struggle to be more proud about it; hence why this is a very proud day for me. I go to bed a proud man but still undecided on who I'll vote for in tomorrow's UK election.