Forgive me Father. It’s been weeks, something like three in total, since my last blog. I’ve barely got time to squeeze this one in, never mind saying any Hail Marys or what have you.
My Creative Writing MA with the Open University has finally come to an end. Or it will have, once I submit this final piece of work. Which I will tonight, almost certainly. That’s why I’ve not posted my running log for the marathon for a little while. But I have still been running.
Yesterday I ran in the Warrington Half Marathon and decided to sandwich it with two three-mile runs, between my sister’s house and the race. It’s exactly three weeks to Yorkshire, so although it didn’t feel as good as my last twenty-miler two weeks ago, I’m pleased to get that in the legs. It’s marginally more than I managed for the Spring marathon but given the hardcore aches all over my body I had today, it’s still in the balance as to whether that will produce a better result than Manchester.
My time, for the Half, was 2:29:54, which would have been fine if my legs had felt bouncy and I was just keeping it steady for the full day’s distance. They felt like lead blocks from around mile four though, even before the big two-mile hill between five and seven. So it was a bit of a slog. I’m going to blame that excess effort on the little sickness bug I had on Wed night and Thursday day. I’m going to blame that sickness on our grandsons, especially the younger one who we mind each week. He’s often getting lurgies off other children in his nursery, and it’s a wonder I’ve not been struck down with his bugs before. I did feel fine by the following day but perhaps not quite as topped up enough as I would normally be. It’s the first illness I’ve had all year, as I’ve not even had a cold (so far), so it threw me off balance a little.
The jog to the race was a bit quick. My sis is a faster runner than me and her ‘jog’ is my ‘working a bit’, but it wasn’t too bad as it was nearly all downhill. The way back (all by myself) though was brutal. My sis had just turned out for the 10K, so she was probably home and showered before I had even finished my half. Today my legs feel like they’ve had an extreme work out, which I hope is a good thing. Final adaptations and all that.
Now that I’ve (nearly) got my course work out of the way, the blogs will be at least weekly to the race. In the meantime, these are the logs from the last three weeks, just for the running, as I can’t remember how much yoga/strength I’ve been doing or when. Not as much as I should.
Week 10
| Day | What I Did |
| Mon | |
| Tue | Wirral Multi-Terrain Series – Royden Park I’ve marshalled this race but I’ve never run it before. The weather was perfect and I had a nice time, particularly as I wasn’t trying to rinse myself. My plan was to save myself for a big long one on Thursday. Run: 4.74 miles [7.63. km] Pace: 11.06 mins/mile [6.87 mins/km] |
| Wed | |
| Thu | Long Run Run: 20.01 miles [32.2 km] Pace: 12.08 mm [7.51 mins/km] This was a really pleasing run because I felt fairly controlled and steady throughout. Had a banana an hour beforehand, and then chews every 3 miles. I even managed to raise the speed in the last two miles. |
| Fri | Was a little bit stiff the day after, but pretty good otherwise. |
| Sat | |
| Sun | Port Sunlight Riverpark Run Run: 6 miles [9.65 km] Pace: 10.50 mm [6.52 mins/km] A simple run to get to 30 for the week. It felt surprisingly good and quite freeing to not have any agenda on this run other than a mileage. Enjoyed speeding up and getting puffed out on the slight uphill on the way back. |
Week 11
| Day | What I Did |
| Mon | |
| Tue | Missed the multi-terrain this week as it was the ankle dicer on the stones. |
| Wed | Run: 10.02 [16.12 km] Pace: 10.23 mins/mile [6.36 mins/km] A threshold pace ten-miler, but didn’t warm up so the first mile or so was a warmup, after which I maintained it at around 10 minute miles for most of it. |
| Thu | |
| Fri | Was planning a 15-miler at a slightly faster than my current marathon pace but managed 13 because of a serious bonk at mile 12. It was extremely muggy and I think I set off too fast, and it was a few days into my period, so not bad in all. Run: 13 miles [20.92 km] Pace: 11.21 mm [6.96 min/km] |
| Sat | |
| Sun | Progression run Run: 7 miles [11.27 km] Pace: 10.32 mm [6.41 mins/km] Another muggy day and I felt a bit sluggish to begin with, but I pushed it anyway. Felt great afterwards but was dripping. |
Week 12
| Day | What I Did |
| Mon | |
| Tue | Wirral Multi-Terrain Series – Harrison Drive Run: 4.12 miles [6.63 km] Pace: 10.10 min/miles [6.27 mins/km] There was some serious headwind going out on the first mile of sand but again I wasn’t planning on pushing it, as I wanted to replicate the long run from two weeks ago, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I found out that I had completely forgot to sign up for the race! So I had no official result. A very good job that I didn’t take the bottle of water at the end because I felt a bit of a fraud. |
| Wed | |
| Thu | Icky Sicky and feeling very sorry for myself. |
| Fri | Run: 5.13 miles [8.26 km] Pace: 11.12 mm [6.91 m/km] I just wanted to see if I felt better and I did seem to. It was nice and steady, and my breathing felt quite good. No real pushing of the pace. So I thought Sunday would be okay. |
| Sat | |
| Sun | Warrington Half Marathon – As a Sandwich Filling The weather here was kind of spot on. Not too windy, apart from the occasional gust and not muggy. To Start Run: 3.33 miles [5.36 km] Pace: 10.36 mm [6.44 m/km] (40 mins to stand around including a ten-minute group warm up) Half Marathon Run: 13.12 miles [21 km] Pace: 11.28mm [7.00 m/km] (15 mins to sit and drink some isotonic something and eat corn) To Home Run/Walk: 3 miles [4.8 km] (essentially all uphill) Pace: 15.10 mm [9.38 m/km] |
theleadlesspencil 