The last lonely blogger....

I know its been a while since my last entry but didn't quite appreciate that its been a month so I'll try and catch up quickly.

Sunday 16th March: Oakley 20, 3hrs 2mins - pleased with that!
Wednesday 19th March: 5miles, off road 10min miling
Friday 21st March: 22miles with Paul and Isabel. This went well, we made it round at a fairly steady pace. I had to do another long run soon after the Oakley 20 as:
Easter Sunday 23rd - 30th March -Ski holiday, no running at all!
Monday 31st March: feeling v tired after previous days travelling and a busy holiday, I dragged myself around 8 miles.

I realise that for me its not a good idea to take a sudden break from running and then expect to just be able to carry on as before. My body definitely complained! I wasn't able to run again due to it being the school Easter holidays, (or do any other exercise) until:

Saturday 5th April: last long run. What a disaster! I aimed for 20 miles and managed 17.25! The last couple of miles involved a lot of walking, then I found I was home and there was no way I was going to be able to run another 3 miles, so that was my last long run.

Therefore, my tapering started much too early (2 weeks too early) and I've been trying to get back into it again in the last week, but at the same time, I'm not doing too much mileage. I'm generally feeling a bit lethargic and my body is a bit achy really.

Tuesday 8th April: a slow 4.5miles
Wednesday 9th April: a slow 6.5 miles
Friday 11th April 7am: 1.5miles with dog, who stopped and refused to go any further.
Friday 11th April 8.35am: 11 miles without dog, at 9.07min/mile so improved pace.
Saturday 12th April: 90 lengths swimming at Cannons

Sunday 13th April: Helped with baggage at FLM - a really good day. It helped to motivate me for the Hamburg marathon, despite the glazed looks on peoples faces as they collected their bags. I definitely needed a bit of a boost to remind me what my training is all for. I thought I might be slightly disheartened now that so many people have achieved their goal and I have to carry on, but instead it has spurred me on.

Tuesday 15th April: 6.5miles at 8.14min/mile - I had to check my watch a few times for errors! This isn't my usual pace! It certainly wasn't feeling easy, but not too bad.
Then did body balance class at gym to help stretching. I know my muscles are tight and I should go for a massage.
Wednesday 16th April: 5miles at 9.15min/mile.
I would normally swim on a Wednesday while my daughter has her swimming lesson but since she fractured her arm skiing, that won't be possible until next week.

To sum up:
I have 1.5 weeks to go.
FLM is over and I have to keep going but don't mind, watching the runners come in has motivated me.
Muscles are a bit tight.
I don't really know what my marathon pace is, partly because most of my training is offroad so I run a bit faster on road. Also, my pacing varies quite a lot from day to day depending on how I feel. I'm not really doing any speedwork or varying my pace according to any training plan.
Therefore, target time - about 4hrs15mins


Plan for any future marathon:
Have a better training plan and eat better i.e. cut out the sweet stuff which is definitely emotional eating!