Long Run Success

The last few weeks have seen me clock up my highest monthly mileage to date - 115 miles with 8 days still left in the month..

2 weeks ago saw me hit 21 miles. I had been struggling with some ankle pain and set out to do as much as I could do but would be happy to hit 10 miles. I did laps of a park just by my house so should the pain be too much I wouldn't be miles from home. At mile 7 I had some pain and decided to run through it, by 10 it had gone.

I then started working towards 18 miles as my new goal. Once I got close to 18 I decided 20 would be better and then as I'd already hit 20 went for 21. Although the last mile and a half were tough I was pleased to hit 21. This is my highest mileage for this training cycle and I felt good. It was such a sunny day and as I thought I wouldn't be out for long I ran on half a banana. I only had one packet of shot bloks and one bottle of Lucozade with me and no money on me so fueling wasn't ideal.

The following weekend was the Exbury Gardens 10k, which was changed to a 5 miler as the recent weather washed away part of the path. The plan was to run there which would have been 13 miles but a lot of the roads don't have pavements so not ideal. Then we were going to cycle but family commitments meant we had to be back by lunchtime so we drove. The race was really good, steady fast pace - may have set off a little too fast but really pleased overall. 8.15 average and finishing time of 41.03 and 7th in my age category. If it had been a 10k I think I would have a new pb. Later in the day I attempted to make up some mileage but only managed 3.5 slow miles so called it a day and had a smaller mileage week instead.

Today was the last long run before the taper begins. I wanted to hit 20 miles and had entered the Eastleigh 10k race. My boyfriend had the same plans so we ran 5 steady miles to the race starting point, averaging just under 10 min miles. We saw a few friends at the start and all started together.  I wanted to keep a 9.30 average for the 10k as this is my marathon goal pace and at the last minute my boyfriend and I decided to race together. As it turned out we averaged 9.15 min miles for most of the 10k which I'm very pleased about.

The race itself was pretty boring and although there was meant to be water at 6km they had ran out. This didn't bother us too much as we had Lucozade with us but other runners I think would struggle. It was a warm day for March and I imagine most runners were planning to grab some water at the water station so I was very unimpressed with the organisation.

After the 10k we went straight to the end of the road where we were meeting two friends from running club who were also out for a final long run. We did a 3-4 mile lap of the area and were hit with very unpredictable weather. We started with glorious sunshine, then had rain and finally hale stones which were so painful! After we said goodbye to our friends it was the final 5 miles home. Home was partly uphill and I did struggle for that mile but felt good when I got home.

It was really nice to break the run down and although the hale wasn't nice and the hill at mile 17 was brutal it was a really successful final long run. A warm bubble bath with lots of epsom salts, eggs on toast and an afternoon on the sofa followed :-)

Mid week I have been sticking with the early morning treadmill intervals in the gym and body pump in the evening. I have also started running the 3.5 miles to running club to have a slightly longer run on a Wednesday. I'm really pleased with how the final weeks of training have gone and am looking forward to tapering down for the next few weeks.