Return of the Cross Country.

Croft Autodrome has been an arena for torture for me for many years now. Firstly from cycle racing and for the last two years running cross country races. Today was the first race in the North Yorkshire South Durham Cross Country League at croft, the circuit looks to be ideally suited for me personally but once the race gets going I just don't seem to be able to make the most of it. The race was over four laps and by the end of the first lap I was thinking this is way too easy then by half way on the second lap I drifted backwards from the leading two runners, Andrew Wiles was just about doing all the work into the strong head wind and Massingham was tucked in behind. Starting the final lap I was caught by another two runners one of them being Lewis Rodgers, who impressively sprinted away to take third and myself having to make do with fifth. I'm not sure who won the race as I was suffering that much and couldn't see properly for the red mist in my eyes.
I knew on Wednesday from the club training that I was some way off my best and the result today confirms that. I have been doing some high intensity training over the last few weeks and would of expected my legs to give up first but the heart and lungs felt like they were on fire today. It's early days yet and it wouldn't be a good idea for me hitting any form just yet, but it still hurts me deeply to get beat. The wife puts it down to me getting too old, may be she might be right. I'm still looking forward to a couple of hard weeks of training including plenty more speed work and some more sports hall lung bursting sprinting sessions with the club. I will miss the next Cross Country fixture due to being on holiday but I will be back for some more pain for the fixture after that in November.
My latest idea is to fit another weight lifting session in before I tackle the speed training on a Saturday morning, half hour of lifting slightly lighter weights than I do on the Thursday's session with one hour of speed training after that should help delay old age setting in.