The Anderson Rep

I’d been nervous about last night’s session even since I’d seen it on my training plan. The days before had only heightened that sense of anxiety. Long runs? Piece of Cake, Intervals? Eat them for breakfast. A combination of the two? ARE YOU MAD!

The session was a 90 min run with 10 reps of 3 minutes at Threshold Pace Followed by 3 minutes Steady Running.

For some reason, my brain made a mountain out of a slag heap “just run it you Slaaaaag”. Luckily, I was off work yesterday, and so could make sure I was properly rested. I learnt in Portugal how important rest is in terms of your overall training plan.

I made my way down to the club and scooted off to start the session. My ‘track’ in the Estuary Business Park is conveniently about a 15 mins run way from the club, so I could get the longer steady runs sections in and do the reps at the square.

It’s sessions like that where you draw on everything you’ve learnt so far. Keeping it steady, working smart not just hard, treating each rep individually, think about your form…etc. Slowly (but not too slowly) I ticked them off, but the time number 8 and 9 came round I was feeling the effort. “Don’t overthink it, just run” I was telling myself.

During Rep 9 I think I became slightly delirious. The Strictly Judges were marking my technique as I was going round, Craig being as a harsh as ever.  I wish I wasn’t joking about this.

But soon enough the last rep was over and I could make my way back to the club. The truth is that secretly I love these sorts of sessions. The Coach asks “Can you do it” and I get to answer “Yes I Bloody can!” He’s not going to ask me to do anything which he doesn’t think I’m capable of. Take that Anderson ;-)

Which brings me nicely to “The Anderson Rep”. When others from PLS are training by the Square, I’ve noticed that whenever they’ve finished I’ve usually still got one or two reps to do. I come to call these “The Anderson Reps” after my coach. In my head, they are Golden Grind Reps, the ones that will make all the difference on race day.

I’ve loved getting back into more speed work this week. London’s Calling and it’s quite loud now.