Well the training has gone well, as for the house and garden, still a mess but happy times spent with my children, one of whom said 'I'd rather have a mum who can run 100 miles than a neat and tidy house' guess there's always the summer holidays!!
I feel this weeks training has gone well even though I have felt I'm constantly running on tired legs, this is a good thing as I have still managed to to the distances and stick to the pace suggested in my training plan.
Wednesday I ran Kenyan Hills, sounded simple, jog slowly to the top run down as fast as you can. It was great, once you relax and stop worrying about falling it was enormous fun hurtling down the hill at full speed, but goodness me my legs were like jelly for several hours afterwards!
Over the weekend I ran back to back long runs on trail, Saturday was tough, I had fun exploring local footpaths and creating a new 15 mile local route, but everything hurt, mentally it was challenging and it just felt a struggle. When I downloaded the data from my Garmin afterwards it was actually an ok paced run, faster than I was running trails at the beginning of the year.
Sunday I was running The Flitch Way with some friends, we drove out to Stansted and ran back the whole length of the Flitch to Braintree, about 18 miles, it was a great morning and a much better run, we celebrated Easter with some Chocolate bunnies, had a cuppa at Rayne Station and managed to miss most of the rain! Felt much better on this run, legs were tired but mentally I felt stronger and having company helped the miles pass by quite quickly. So thank you to Rob, Richard, Lorraine and Iain for a lovely run.
Eating every two miles during my long runs is definitely working for me, still need to continue to experiment with different foods, but feeling that this strategy will be one that will work for me in my upcoming ultras.
Halstead Marathon is now only three weeks away, the tough training is nearly done, I am quicker than I was in January and feeling positive that I can (with Lindley pacing me) get round in 4:15.
I am thoroughly enjoying my training, pushing my body hard, I don't mind the tiredness or the aches, they make me feel like I'm getting it right (good aches I like to call them!) and seeing the improvements in my running ability makes it all worthwhile. Having a coach is definitely working for me and I would recommend Lindley from Challenge Running Ltd to anyone who wants to improve, reach a particular goal, run their first marathon or further. For more info have a look at http://www.challenge-running.co.uk/coaching/
So tomorrow I have to go back to work, energised and refreshed after the Easter holidays ready to face the new term, I guess tired with aching legs is close enough!!!
Have a good week and happy running xx
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