National 12 Stage Relay

So the National 12 stage relays have come and gone, first of all a well done to Tipton for their late late show in their victory and to all the other teams that competed. The Sale team were hit by a succession of withdrawals in the weeks leading up to the race and our overall position (32nd) is the lowest that I have been involved in.

My race it self was hard to judge, last year i ran 27:15 but at the same time I was set off in 3rd, quickly moved up to 1st and then was dragged through by quicker runners catching up. This year it was a different story, I was set off in 27th place after Jamie Roden had gone the wrong way on his short leg (he thought he was doing the 6 stage the numpty) and didn't have much to aim at for the first part of the race. I caught my first runner just after the first hill but was then on my own again until the turn around on the long drag. I'll admit I suffered until then as I always forget how long that part is. I took a few more places once I hit the down hill and round the pool and sprinted up the finishing straight. My time was 28:01, as you can imagine, not overly impressed but the time difference between each race (from last year) is steadily coming down.

The next few weeks are fairly hectic in terms of racing and training. I will be racing the Salford 10k on Good Friday before heading off to Croatia for a weeks holiday, I still will be running just not the sessions. On my return I have Matt Barnes' Wedding and before the end of May I'll fit in a 3k and 1500 (probably at the Trafford open meeting and BMC respectively). My first steeplechase will not be until the 4th of June in the BAL in Cardiff i will probably follow that up in the BMC at Watford.

In terms of my barefoot revolution there have been a few additions to my schedue. After every session I complete on the track I am doing at least 800m barefoot as part of my warm down and of course still enjoying my Kinvara, so much so I have bought another pair, this 'livestrong' esque pair look pretty cool and still have all the benefits. I'm actually finding that when I run in my hurricanes my achilles, in my problematic right leg, aches almost as soon as I start running. Could this be the end of my supportive shoes?

It may be a couple of weeks until my next blog but I will endeavor to fit it in where possible.

Bailey