The Road to Ambition by xSASSx

A light week running wise with just over 9 miles covered compared to week 1 which was 10. The reason being I took Sunday and Monday as complete rest days as I felt rough which was a shame as my legs were raring to go on Sunday, but I felt fantastic during my 8 miler today so it was all worth it. I took about 4 1/2 mins off my previous (only) time over this distance which was about 10 weeks ago but the first 7 miles felt easy today. The last mile was a bit twisty to make up the distance and a bit windy, as was the first mile but it has less affect when you're fresh out the door. Beautiful weather today apart from that - about 10 degrees, sunny and clear.

Despite the reduced running last week I ticked most of the boxes for my cross training. I also started a fitball class which I really enjoyed although it wasn't what I expected as I was hoping for a core workout and it was quite aerobic and resistence. I might go this week just for fun but after that can't go because I will be working and the evening class clashes with club speed run session.

So that's the other exciting thing - I went for a trial with the running club and absolutely loved it. I was the last one to finish doing 6 miles in 11:18 pace, but that was on tired legs after doing a gym session and the class during the day. I sound like I'm getting my excuses in but the run was great fun and felt comfortable, though I ached the next day. I'll definitely be returning with my membership fee this week, hoping to finish faster with a better recovery. During the week I bought myself a fluo t-shirt as I've never run in the dark before. It was about this time last year I stopped running for the season as my breathing really struggled in the cold but so far so good and hopefully now my chest is strong enough to cope.

I had really vivid marathon dreams after my club run and was really hyped and positive about the marathon. I dreamed that I completed in 4 hrs 32 mins so that is now my target. I've even written it on the fridge in magnets. Positive thinking goes a long way! I've always said I'm aiming to get round but would like 5 hours. It was a bit of a ballpark figure when I first signed up for the VLM ballot the week before I started running, but it has been a reasonable one. When I signed up for the MK marathon I put 4:30 - 5:00 (I thought it was 4:45 - 5 but I checked it today) as I thought all the non runners would put 5 hrs and I wanted to be just in front of them. I often used McMillan to check my pace / progress so today I plugged in my fasted time for each distance (training runs and races) to compare estimated marathon times. They range from 4:55 to 5:51 (the heatwave half) but the majority of estimates are under 5:20. In order to achieve this I need to do a sub 58 10k and a sub 2:09 half. I realise it's a lot of work to do and that it's hard to do yourself justice in the first event at each distance, but I suddenly have the feeling I can do this. I can run a marathon at a reasonable pace. I have almost 6 months before taper in which to add another 50% to my mileage (i.e. from 13.1 to 20 miles) and to knock around 1 min per mile off my long run pace.

In other news, I've switched allegiance to another run mapping site as the realbuzz one hasn't worked for a few days and I took a wrong turn on my three miler which resulted in it being a tad short.