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.
