Unfortunately, neither of my children have been very well this week.  

The end of term is nigh and as most parents will testify this normally means you’ve got some very tired and/or ill kids on your hands. 

It’s meant a week of broken sleep for all concerned in the Armstrong household; thankfully as I write this everyone seems on the mend. 

But as I started to get my kit together ahead of the third race in the Yarmouth 5M on Wednesday I couldn’t get the idea of a nap out of my head.  

It wasn’t an option bearing in mind I was trying to juggle work along with making sure my daughter, Lara, was as comfortable as she could be. I settled for a strong coffee instead. 

I tried to keep my expectations low ahead of the race. The most important thing was to not aggravate anything too much and finish the race strong. 

I really buried myself in the pain cave at the first event (there is picture evidence) and, for all manner of reasons, I didn’t feel ready to go there again.  

Physically, I’m probably just about capable, but mentally I felt spent before I even toed the start line.  

I’ve felt like this before on marathons start lines, notably Brighton in 2023 and Manchester in 2018, so the silver lining this time was at least it was ‘only’ a five-miler. 

I’ve made my peace with the fact this isn’t a phase for PBs; I just need to be consistent now and slowly but surely, I’m hoping the times will come down again. 

MORE: Love running? Join the Run Anglia Facebook group here

So, I started out at a controlled effort, which settled around the 4-minute kilometre pace. 

That felt pretty comfortable for the first phase of the race, but it certainly dipped into the uncomfortable zone on the stretch back to the Marina Centre on the first loop. 

The wind was in our faces at this point, and I enlisted the help of Wymondham AC club-mate Dan Brocklehurst, who was pacing several other WAC members. 

I tucked in behind Dan and tried to draft as much as possible before the wind would be behind us again at the start of the second lap. 

This was probably the phase that I felt the strongest and started picking off a few runners. I wanted to make up a bit of time on this section as I knew the stretch for home would be challenging. 

The turn back to the finish line is about a mile-and-a-half so I told myself that I had about 10 minutes of discomfort to endure. 

I didn’t have it in me to try and pick up the pace – I just wanted to limit the damage of the wind and push as much as I could on the home straight. 

When the time came in the last mile where I would normally try and rally, I had the conversation in my head of ‘what’s the point of pushing hard now?’ 

I realised that the best thing to do is to keep an honest pace and take the training effect of this run. There was little to be gained in trying to make up a few seconds and heighten the injury risk. 

I finished with a time of 32:30 – a pretty solid run in the circumstances. It’s a long way from where I want to be, but those hard miles have been banked now and I can take them forward into next week’s training. 

Staying consistent with plenty of easy miles and mixing in a bit of pace will hopefully get me back to where I want to be. 

It’s no time to mourn the fitness I’ve lost since the start of the year.  

It’s time to look forward and realise I’ve got a pretty decent base to work off. 

 

Logan Smith 

I want to highlight the achievement of City of Norwich AC member Logan Smith on his sub-30-minute clocking at the Night of 10,000 PBs. 

My wife, Alison, and I were glued to the race on YouTube it for all 29:53 – it was enthralling and inspiring to see. 

I’ve known Logan for a few years now and you couldn’t meet a nicer, hardworking lad, who combines a busy job with some elite running. 

I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do for the rest of the year.