Whose idea was this anyway?

Five and a bit weeks to go 'til the big M and I'm nowhere near prepared. Where did the summer go? It only seems like days since I was meticulously planning my 16-week training schedule - dreaming about reaching peak fitness and slashing 30 minutes off my time. Ha!

My initial enthusiasm for the running club soon wore off, because:

• Tuesday night long runs were too long and I didn't like leaving the dog at home - she likes running too but the beach is so much more fun than the road and she hates being on the lead
• Thursdays were great but the boys were just too fast for me - why was I the only girl? I thought this was a good challenge at first, but the novelty of playing catch up didn't last and I started to feel demotivated.

I haven't given up on the club completely, but twice-weekly is now more like once-a-month. I am still sticking to three runs a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday - but have replaced Tuesday's club run with a circuit/hill reps session in the park straight after work. The beauty of this is that it gives me the chance to catch up with a couple of the girls and still get home in time to take the dog out. Thursdays are either running club or 5-6 miles with the dog, and Saturday is the long run.

Ah, the long run. My nemesis. Try as I might I could not get past 9 miles. It always felt like there was so long to go until the marathon that there was no hurry to go longer. I got bored and took a short cut home. Then two weeks ago I did the Haddington Half Marathon and was shocked into action. Another personal worst! It was a warm and sunny afternoon and I was tired, but that's really no excuse. I just hadn't put in the training and I had no one to blame but myself. It didn't bode well for the marathon.

I'd really love to beat my only other marathon attempt (4 hours 20 minutes, 4 years ago) so I'm now pulling out all the stops. I did 14 miles last Saturday - 7 out and 7 back so I couldn't cheat - and intend to add on 2 a week until I hit 20. I'll also add in some cross-trainer and bike sessions on my non-running days, to try to get my fitness up without over-training.

Can I reach my best-ever fitness in less than 6 weeks? Watch this space!

Don't forget to pack your running shoes

We're off on holiday on Monday for two weeks and my running kit is at the top of my packing list.  I'm still feeling tired and struggling to get out after work so I hope that the holiday will give me a good chance to re-charge and energise.

I did manage to drag my sorry self along to both running club sessions this week.  The journey home from work was spent with a small demon on one shoulder whispering 'put your feet up, have a cup of tea, eat chocolate' and a virtuous little angel on the other saying 'you'll feel so much better if you make the effort'.  

In the end I compromised - I went along, did my best, then came home and had tea and chocolate!

 

PW to PB in 4 weeks

Just a quickie today as it's my second day in my brand new job tomorrow (hence the lack of postings).  I ran a 10k this morning and managed to make a PB (50 min 46) in spite of my relatively rubbish performance in the half marathon last month.

One contributing factor could be the fact that I joined the local running club a couple of weeks ago and went out running with the big boys on the track on Thursday.  Okay so it's not really long enough to make a massive difference to my fitness but I think it made me realise that I can push myself harder than I have been.

To celebrate, I've now entered two more half marathons this summer and... wait for it... a marathon in October.  I'll keep you posted with the progress (after I've got my head around my new job).

Planning moves into the 21st century

At last! I'm finally getting to grips with all the websites and technologies that are available to help me with my training. Like twitter, I signed up for Fetch everyone a good 18 months before I actually started to use it. I just didn't have the motivation to figure out how it worked.

Until now, my training log was strictly low-tech - scribbled in diaries or on bits of paper. Not any more! This week I finally succumbed to the lure of Fetch everyone's gadgets and gizmos and put it all online. The site is great - I've mapped out a few runs that I do regularly, uploaded some recent runs from my Garmin, logged recent race times and prepared a plan for the next four weeks training.

The trouble is, I'm now addicted. Between Fetch Everyone, Facebook, emails and this blog, not to mention work, I've been sitting on my bum for an unhealthy number of hours every day. How do you know when to stop?

To compensate, this week I joined my local running club and I've also started daydreaming about entering a marathon later in the year. I swore I'd never do another one after being unable to walk for days after the last time, but it's been four years now and I'm in the mood for a challenge. I think I'll get next week's 10k out of the way first though.