Thursday 28 October 2010

A dogged 5K track tempo run

Thursday. Track day.  Bit late today with the Athletics Weekly and Runner's World  magazines to be perused before setting off and Pat consulting me about business matters.  She doesn't accept I'm supposed to be retired. 
 Both magazines had references to runners having to cope with dogs "off the lead ".   The incident with the family with the fairly large but young dog on Tuesday certainly was unwelcome to say the least.  As the dog
became entangled between my moving legs,  legs which had an hour of  tough running in them,  the strain in the right groin area was very painful. 

It's  a chronic "sore" area and I felt at first that I would have to limp the last 2 miles to finish.  Initially I started to limp away but decided to turn back  and "explain" .....OK I did raise my voice somewhat!.......to the young lady owner that  dogs were supposed to be on a lead in that area and explained further the distress to tired,old legs.   She tried to explain that the dog was a young one.  She did not apologise or enquire if I was OK despite having clearly seen me stumble and yelp in pain, nearly falling down  the bank into the river Wharfe!
   I will be contacting the estate management to see if anything can be done to ensure that dogs are kept on a lead on the Strid trails which are so popular with walking families.  The majority arrive by car and are stopped for payment so it would be easy to say something to dog owners at this point.
  Meanwhile, I think I will stop trying to continue running past "loose dogs"  and encourage owners to grab the collar when we run by.   better to be cautious rather than bitten or injured.

  No dogs on the track today; although last week,  one had paid a visit and left it's calling card!  I didnt't do a 5K tempo run on the track in September and having not raced for a few weeks, I decided it was time for
12 and half laps today.   With the midday sun breaking through the clouds being blown away by a cooling westerly,  it was again a story of gradual acceleration............

 1.51  1.50  1.48  1.50  1.49  1.49  1.47  1.46  1.45  1.44  1.45  1.44   53........................22.25

As this was only 30 seconds slower than that washout 5K race last time out I was reasonably pleased but a sub 22 would have been better.   Perhaps next time.   These tempo runs are hard work run alone but I honestly don't think I would achieve much faster mile splits......7.19  7.11  6.58
...... running them as 3 x 1. 

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