The Road to Ambition by xSASSx

Ooh 10 days with no updates!

My last post ended on a downer with cutting my run very short. However, things are now going great, I've run a lot of miles since then.

I recovered in time for my mid-week club run of 6 miles, although I struggled, we all did a bit after the break so was about 4 mins off normal pace but it was nice to be back after a few weeks off club running. My niggly injury came back but was stable so as it wasn't getting any worse I carried on.

Saturday I did a parkrun as it fitted in with hubby's plans to meet friends. I was too late arriving for a warm up so started off slowly. Again the leg niggled when I started running but got no worse so I took it steady, I had to for the first km as it was so busy, but after that I wasn't overtaken and slowly picked off loads of runners despite finishing almost 2 mins behind PB.

LSR was 9 miles. The plan said 10 but as my 8 became 2.9 I thought I'd pare it back a tad. Oddly, I found the first 5 miles hard work (niggly leg again) after which my legs felt free and I started speeding up, ending up with a negative split of about 3 mins. Not my fastest time for the distance but 12:15 pace is still on target for 11:30 marathon pace on the day. More importantly I finished strong and would have added in an extra mile but for the fact my 10 miler (which is a mile loop added towards the end of the 9) involved crossing the bypass twice and it was dusk and I was darkly dressed.

Over 21 miles recorded for week 1, plus a 4lb weight loss which shocked me, even though I thought I had done well, just not that well!

So, week two began with a recovery swim of half a mile, even though my legs felt fine. I was so chuffed not be tired on a Monday, especially after I spent most of the previous week feeling tired from being back at work. Ironically by Tuesday I was feeling tired and my arms were aching from not swimming lengths for about 6 months.

Tuesday, I was going to the gym but hubby made plans at dinner time, which meant dinner was late and I'd lost the inclination by the then. Wednesday I was so tired I fell asleep about 8pm so that ruled out that propsed gym session. Thursday I came home from work feeling ill so scrapped club run, (I think I had a nap at that time).

I was a bit gutted at this point that four days into the week I hadn't run but had organised a group of colleagues to run after work on Friday. As it was the first session and the others were non runners / ex runners / treadmill runners, we just did 2 miles which is measured along the cycle track. I set a PB for the distance by about 1 min 20s, despite taking it easy due to the cold niggly leg again.

Luckily the niggly leg pain doesn't last long so today I was able to go for my LSR. I was initially unsure as I got very little sleep last night due to my tickly cough, and the fact all I had in the house to remedy it was honey whisky liquer. Luckily the alcohol did the trick, calmed my cough and allowed me to sleep, without having an adverse affect on my hydration. So I managed 12 miles which was a 7 mile loop finsihing at my house, followed by a 5 mile loop, thereby allowing me to swap my then empty water bottle for a full lucozade one. Although I found the first 4 miles a struggle while my legs warmed up I mastered the 12:30 min mile shuffle. I wished I'd put my HRM on as I was convinced my HR was low, I felt so in control. So much so that having completed the first 7 miler, instead swapping to lucozade I grabbed an old lucozade bottle with about 50ml left in it, topped it up to about two thirds full with warm water from the kettle, which nicely thawed my cold hands as I continued my run, and provided the prefect about of hydration for the remaining 5 miles. It took me almost exactly 2 1/2 hrs, once I subtracted the minute it took to dive into the house and back out again, but bar that, it was my longest continuous run. My legs feel fine, again they felt free after the first few miles, and I ended the run feeling invincible, having to stop myself from sprint finishing. However, within a few minutes I was feeling sick, something which continued for about 3 hours so I ended up with eggs, beans and toast for dinner as I couldn't face the planned lasagne. Whenever I've felt sick after a run before I've put it down to a combination of heat, racing hard and drinking lucozade, none of which applied today so I was really baffled by this nausea. I guess I won't know unless it recurrs another time.

A short recovery run planned for tomorrow, plus swimming with the kids so I shouldn't stiffen up. Mileage will be down again this week compared to the plan and to last week, but is still well up on 2011 averages.

I hope everyone's week has been successful too.