Rye to Hastings

LOAD: 700

10 Mins WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 2)

12 Miles @ HM Pace (RPE: 5-8)

10 Mins CD @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

3 Races in 1. 9km of flat through the nature reserve and tricky Sea Wall. Nothing quicker than half marathon pace through this section. Then comes the climb, take your time and walk where needed. The finish from the top of Barley Lane is great fun, let yourself go and you could be running anywhere between 5-10k pace down the hill.

Paul ran a solid race last year so his splits give you a good idea of what you might be looking for here. CLICK HERE

1:32:26 last year was your time and with far more favourable conditions forecast I think you could knock a decent chunk of that.

Targets might even be a bit conservative 🤔

Coach Simon

FEEDBACK

8 ENJOYMENT

RPE

4:37

PACE

This was a good one. Things went to plan and as a rarity it felt like I was properly racing for the entire thing! I knew the tailwind would make a difference and it was mostly positive not having that strong headwind for ~9km, but with the wind behind us it certainly made it hot and some of us struggled with the heat. I set off not too quick as planned, let the first pack of fasties zoom off and found myself in a nice big group for the first km (George, Kieran, Stu, Matthews Miller and Ripley, Zoe & Dave), but as they started to pull away I kept it steady @ ~4:20 with Kieran and we watched them increase the gap. It was good to have a big target group and soon enough they started to drop off (Matt Miller first, then Zoe) so Kieran and I took them both with ease. Maintained half-marathon pace for this first 9km. When we started the first climb I caught up with the remainders of the pack (George, Dave and Stu) as they had slowed for the muddy hills, I actually lost Kieran here for a time. Stu was holding us up a bit, the heat had got to him and that first hill did him in. Once we were able to get past him we shot off and Kieran caught us up. The climb up to Fairlight was pretty awful but I didn’t stop to walk once. At this point there was a bit of a gap between myself/Kieran, and Dave/George. Those final climbs were tough and I was not able to push as hard as I’d have liked but I kept on motoring up. We passed one of the fasties who had to keep stopping due to an injury. The muddy section before Barley lane was a bit slow, didn’t dare go too fast due to the wet mud. It was so nice to get to Barley Lane and really open the legs up, felt great! I maintained ~10k pace for a few kms then 5k pace for the last push. Overtook Dave on the steep downhills as I had enough in my legs for a fast but controlled downhill push, then it was just George… he was flying but I had him as soon as it levelled out before The Bourne. Then I was on it, as fast as I could comfortable. A couple of glances behind showed me that Kieran had started to push and wasn’t far behind, so it was a sprint finish to the end and I beat him by 7 seconds. For the entire race we were not more than ~15s from each other, most of the time we were neck and neck. It was nice running with him, even nicer beating him ;-) I came in a minute quicker than you set but couldn’t have given much more. 6.5 mins quicker than last year so pretty happy with that!

Sam Davies

Love this and brings back one year for myself where it all went to plan. Sounds you executed the race perfectly from a pacing point of view and it’s such a good feeling when that happens and you are able to pick off other runners who haven’t quite got it right. To have the others around you including George and Kieran always makes it a more enjoyable experience, even more so to be able to beat them with a strong finish. Such a big improvement on last year, but I do appreciate conditions were a lot more challenging then. Sounds like the effort level was spot on, keeping it comfortable to begin with, doing what you could up the hill without stopping and then really unleashing the speed on that final stretch. I think that’s what makes that race for me, to get to that point of the route and suddenly be able to pick up the pace and feel strong is a great feeling. Hopefully another confidence boost and a sign of just how well you are running right now. I have to say the standard of runners among the men right now is really deep and it’s great to see it’s providing healthy competition. It’s inspiring for me as well to see if I can find anything else and become a little bit quicker. Superb running Sam and loving the feedback. Thank you.