Wednesday I decided not to run as I knew Thursday was going to be a tough day; instead I went to the gym and spend half an hour on the bike, did a few light weights and lots of stretching. Thursday morning I woke to the sound of rain. I kept an ear out for my mobile, half hoping Shannon would text to call off so I could go back to bed and avoid the rain. But I turned up as did Shannon and many others, despite the awful weather, and we ran the bridges loop. I kept my pace really slow to save myself for track in the evening - 6.26min pace - not sure if I've run that slow in a long time, but it did feel rather nice. Shannon is coming back nicely with her running and pushed on, which was great to see.

Later in the day (helped out by a recovery session at the gym involving a steam room and cold showers) I headed to the track with Sugar. The plan was for a 3km and a 1km. After last week's 14.57 I was looking to take my 3km a little faster. The conditions again were perfect; clear, cool and very little wind. I set out at my goal pace, slipped a little in the second lap, but managed to pull it back a bit and hold on reasonably well. I finished in 14.42, which I'm very pleased with - a 15 second improvement over last week. I was well out of breath when I was done and couldn't imagine doing the 1km, but there was a good gap, so I decided to front up. Having never done a 1km race before I had no idea how to pace it. It really showed as I realized too late that I was feeling way too good for a 1km - with just 400m to go I had a lot in the tank. I pushed much harder, but too late and ended up with a time of 4.39. I know I could have gone under 4.30, so I guess next time I'll have to hurt from the start! Still it's a learning curve and I'm very pleased with what I did tonight