Daffodils in the garden so spring must be just round the corner. Up at the crack this morning and set off down to Byres Road at 6.16am to wind through University Avenue and along to Kelvingrove Park for a 6 mile hills session before breakfast. What a splendid morning. Dry and not too cold. My achilles was very sore this morning and no amount of heel lifts and stretches could relieve the initial pain. By the time I reached the park it had eased off. 
Managed to hook myself up to the Garmin successfully this time and took it easy on the hills around the park. Got the HR up to a max of 167 as I did 4 or 5 loops around the park. Concentrated on the cadence on the hills rather than pace so that I could give the achilles a rest. Quite a few dog walkers and general walkers in the park but not many runners. There was one lady I passed who beat me to cheery hello and an acknowledgement. Looked as if she was having a great time. That's what it should be about. We are doing this for fun after all. 
Going to give Park Run a blast on Saturday for my first real race test of the training and probably more importantly the achilles. Park Run is a timed 5km race in Pollok Park and starts next to the Burrell at 9.30am every Saturday. They normally get around 200-300 turning up. It's a great free event. I was looking at my times for last year and see that my PB is 18.31 which was done whilst I was in the midsts of Boston training. It will be interesting to see how close I can get to that time. This will give me a good barometer on where my speed is at. I cracked out a 19 odd minute effort in Decemebr and should be comfortably inside that. I say comfortably - no 5km that I have ever done could be described as comfortable. By the end I am gulping air like a drowning man lurching around like a jakey on meths whilst trying not to vomit. A pretty sight I am sure you agree! Lets see how it goes on Saturday.
Numbers - 6 miles - 50.45 mins - 8.27 pace - 139 HR avg - cadence 80.7 - calories 826 - max HR 167
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