Ticking over

Its been a while. But things haven't been going too badly. Training for the Malvern Half Marathon was okay and the only thing that looked like it would put a damper on proceedings was the weather. Freezing and piddling down on the day of the race. Lining up at the start it was truly miserable, but then - miracle of miracles - as we all pounded off on the route the rain abated and things started to warm up to create the perfect conditions. The race itself was a good one for me. I set off at a rather rapid pace, logging in under 8 mins for the first four or five miles and completing the first 10k in about 49mins - not far off a PB itself. Fully anticipating a drop off in the second half, it didn't really happen and I continued to feel pretty strong, being helped by a Chepstow Harrier keeping good pace just in front. At the eleven mile mark I was looking like I could get under 1hr 45 and pushed on with that in mind, crossing the line in 1hr 45mins and 7secs, although the Garmin tells me I ran 13.17miles, a bit longer than the official distance. Still, a PB by more than 3 mins on Cardiff and good progress.

Following on from that I've had a couple of weeks of just keeping things ticking over really. The half marathon training programme over, the 16 week marathon training programme starts next Monday. I managed to get in some warm weather training in during the family holiday in the South of France. Near to the site we were staying on was a fab wooded area called the Lido with a course sportif consisting of a series of rustic items of exercise equipment - hurdles, monkey bars, sit up bench and the like. Although it was darn hot - even at 10am being around 25 degrees - it was a wonderful opportunity to run out each morning and do a 5 mile loop and one I managed to get in on five occasions. Since getting back, the mileage rate has dropped off a bit, but I've managed to get in a few well-paced shorter runs........ just keeping things ticking over.

Next week the real fun begins. More attention to diet. More attention to speed and strength. And the mileage. Only one way to go. Total mileage to date: 437.43.