Long Runs

I’ve now completed the first 7 weeks of my 18 week plan. After yet another bout of sickness, mainly consisting of a painful sore throat and cough, I went to the Drs. She thinks there an inflamed something or rather in my nose, as has prescribed me the steroid used by asthma sufferers, to be inhaled nasally instead of orally. Unfortunately it will take a month to take effect. But she told me it was safe to run, so I’m back on track.

I’ve now done long runs on Sunday of 14 and 16 Miles (thats Miles, not KMs…). I have however decided to adopt the Runners World Magazine “Get You Round” tactic of running 5 minutes, then walking 1 minutes.

I still haven’t solved the blister problem. My new saucony shoes do allow me to run longer than any other shoe I’ve had, and if I cover effected areas in blister patches I can actually run pain free, however I’m not sure that will hold up for the full 26.2 Miles (or 42KMs). I shall be heading off to the podiatrist soon.

We’ve had some lovely snow in London over the last few weeks. Unfortunately Tim and I live close enough to work that we can walk in, so no day off making snowmen for us. It hasn’t effected my training though, I’ve just done my long runs on my treadmill.

My next race will be the Bath Half Marathon on March 15th. Tim and I are making a weekend of it, and are staying in a nice hotel for a couple of nights, and taking the Monday off work.

http://www.runninghigh.co.uk/

Next week is a “recovery” week, looking forward to the long run “only” being 12 Miles. You would think that I’d be losing loads of weight with all this running, but no. Apparently its very common to put weight on. Something about putting on muscle. I’m careful about what I eat, but still, I have to eat more than usual the day or two after a long run, as I get VERY VERY hungry. Speaking of hungry…wonder what’s in the fridge…

The Start of the Plan

Tim and I travelled to Orlando late November for a wonderful three week holiday. We even managed to do a few runs every week in the morning. It was lovely running around the lakes near our hotel, and plenty of other slow plodding runners for company. It was my first trip to Orlando without catching a cold!

After our lovely trip, we returned to a cold-snap in London, and 2 days after arriving home I promptly got sick :(

I was sick for nearly two weeks, and barely ran at all! The terrifying official start of my marathon program on the 22nd December got closer, and closer, and I was still sick. The 22nd cam and went, and still only the odd slow plod. Then finally I got a bit better, was able to sleep at night, instead of coughing ALL NIGHT, and finally started running again. My training schedule is 3 runs per week, plus an optional 4th. Needless to say I didn’t do the optional fourth. I did manage to do all three runs, some slightly shorter than scheduled, but it was the frequency I was focusing on.

I took advantage of the time off over the Christmas break to drag Tim outside for runs in Regent’s Park (a 12 min walk from our house). It was a bit chilly, so we bought some winter running kit. Long tights, running jackets, long sleeve shirts, running beanies, gloves. Lots of layers. The week after buying our kit, we knew we’d done the right thing. Snow and ice on the ground. The lakes in the park had frozen over. It was cold.

I’ve so far done three weeks of my seventeen week training program, and have done the three runs a week. My Sunday long runs have been 8, 10 and 12 Miles so far. I’ve struggled a bit in the last 2 miles of each run, and I’ve taken plenty of walk breaks, but I’ve finished them.