Following on from three consecutive days of running I made the most of my free Saturday and the glorious weather to go out for a jog.

Laura was out for the day at an event held by Liz Yelling. After a morning of household DIY involving undercoating 4 doors whilst it was glorious outside, I donned my shorts and grabbed my Oakleys and headed into town.

Dumping my kitbag in Baker St gym I set off towards Regents Park after a lap of the outer circle I headed inwards to try find ‘The Hub’ where Laura was. I failed miserably with that running around the inner inner circle numerous times – eventually after revisiting the same ‘You are here’ maps about 5 times I gave up – tracked back to the outer circle and came in after London Zoo. I wasn’t overly bothered about times or distance today so when in the corner of my eye I saw three Giraffes I got my phone out and snapped away, a rarity for me!!

Plodding onwards I eventually found The Hub then left Regents for Hyde Park. I was trying out my new camelbak waist belt with water carrier so had plenty of fluid with me today which was fortunate as it was so toasty!!

One lap of Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens eventually took it out of me. I struggled today much more than a number of sub 13miles which I have done. I can put this down to the heat and to an extent poor fueling before I started. Whilst I did take on an energy drink I didn’t each much which left me feeling quite weak by the end.

If I’m totally honest though I wasn’t too bothered. I managed a reasonably long run in the heat on the back of a 7/6/4 day meaning in 4 consecutive days I ran just under 30miles injury free.

Spinning day on Monday which I’m looking forward too as always then swim Tuesday, Serps Wednesday…Lets hope the sun stays out so I can possibly get another run in somewhere, maybe Tuesday lunchtime…

Till next time

(edit: this post is a week old – i didnt submit it last weekend!).

I can’t deny my current “training”, if that’s what you can call it, is a bit sporadic at the moment. Managing only one real run a week coupled with no gym and unhealthy living it’s not the start I would have liked. Inconsistency is the cause of the problem, my weekends are stuffed full of diy and finding the motivation to do sports when, by Monday lunch I’m already shattered, is proving difficult. I really need to fight through my head demons and crack on…

I did manage a short run on Sunday, following a few hours kip I put on my kit for 7am and started running. Within minutes my brain started to persuade me to “cut the run short”, because I was tired. Annoyingly I listened, however it didn’t get it’s way entirely. I dropped a mile of the usual distance, dropping it to 6.5miles but increased the hardness of the route by adding more hills to my route. Where I live is pretty hilly which is a help for training but not critical for the London Mara as it’s pretty flat…

Anyway 6.6miles achieved, pretty damn slow and no real sense of pride in the slightest, must push myself harder but still trying to work out quite when!!

N

Finding time to get out there and do serious training is tricky at the moment. Having recently purchased a property most of my free moments are filled with diy or in b and q, however, Sunday morning alarm set for 7am I was up prepping myself for a 7/8miler.

The SIS stuff back out again as i start feeding my muscles, one of the things I picked up from my last run was poor fueling – I will be getting this right this time!

I was out the door by 730, pounding the pavement with barely a sole in site – this is dedication I thought to myself at the time, then remembered this was not going to be the last time over the next few months!!

The route I chose was an old one, introduced to me by my father, it is undulating throughout and is a loop with no repetition. In clockwise it is tough, anticlockwise it is insane with a good half mile steep incline – I chose clockwise!

The run itself wasn’t to bad, I was a lot slower than in my peak but that is to be expected really as my training has been scaled back massively. Reached the 7mile marker which is the home straight and tacked on an extra mile, this may have been foolish my legs were ok with 7 but I really felt a difference in that final mile.

However, a very promising initial run, next weekend push it up a bit more and get a session in on Wednesday. Will start reviewing training schedules too and get out the diary…scary times follow once again!

N