November endurance, December speed

I started November with a half marathon on the 7th, which came off the back of very little training having been climbing mountains in Tanzania in the first two weeks of October. This led me to focus my training on building up endurance in order to be confident of getting round 21 kilometres rather than concerning myself with how fast I was running. This is reflected in the distance I covered in total over the month, 168 kilometres, over the last calendar year I've only covered more in March, when I was just a month away from the marathon in London.

Now having completed two half marathons in November my focus is switching to speedwork so that by the time my next half comes around in January 2011 hopefully I'll be back to running near to the level I was at in January 2010. With that in mind I have entered two races:

• IV Milla Urbana Playa de San Juan - 19th December 2010 - http://www.grupobrotons.com/Millaurbanaplayasanjuan10/index.asp
• San Silvestre Crevillentina - 31st December 2010 - http://www.marathoncrevillent.com/sansilvestrecrevillentina/

The first of these is a mile race in a beachside town within easy reach of my home, the second is a 10k race in a small town away from the coast, Crevillente, which wikipedia informs me is famous for its rugs.

Throughout December I'll be going to the track regularly to do sprint sessions, with the odd hill session thrown in, but nothing quite matches up to racing to get the heart going, and the 10k in particular should be a good guide to how fast I can go in the subsequent half marathons I have scheduled.

I haven't raced a 10k for a long time, not since I left England over two years ok, and that absence of races has meant a goal going unachieved, to break 40 minutes over the distance. In my last effort I came home in 40:14. I'll be looking to take at least 15 seconds off my PB to end the year on a high.