What a week !

Well, it was quite a busy week last week. I managed to fit in a few runs as well as hill training with the club.

Now those are two words that install fear in to me.... Hill Training...... with some of the hills around here it just feels like sheer torture. I know it will get better with time but at the moment it really does feel as though it is killing me... at times we were running (well I was trying to run) up slopes that previously I wouldn't have tried walking up yet alone running. I really wasn't sure what was going to give way first, my lungs or my legs ! But that was last Thursday. Today is Monday and today is the first day that the muscles in my bum have stopped aching. I really have discovered muscles in all sorts of places that I never knew existed. I tell myself that this is a Good Thing. That these muscles will help me through the next year and around the marathon.... another part of me really isn't convinced and thinks that a return to my old sedentary lifestyle including alcohol and chocolate would be a Good Thing.... but I will do this. I know if I keep at it I will get better at it... and as time goes on I miss the old lifestyle less and less...

After a very disturbed night Saturday I was feeling tired before I started my long run on Sunday as well as still aching from the hill session Thursday night so it was quite nice to complete the 16.3 mile route that I had planned... I'm still sticking to the HR training and tried to keep my HR below the 70% threshold, I could see when I was starting to get tired because I was running slower on flat ground and my HR was still near its limit. I think it is using my HR like this that really is helping me to extend the distances I am running.


Last week I ran a total of 32.76 miles... this week will be an awful lot less... today is a rest day, then with a mix of work commitments and the fact that I'm running in the BUPA London 10K on Monday means that I will get less runs in and will be making sure I'm fully rested. I'm hoping to get my 10k time to as close as 55 mins as I can, Monday will also be the largest race I have taken part in so far... about the same number of runners as the marathon next year....

This is my race number for Monday, wave if you see me !