Another awesome run

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a lovely day.

I had a 10 mile run to fit in today (around appointments, packing, jobs at home), and in the end headed out at about half 10. The weather was beautiful (more suncream on first)- sunny with a light breeze. I put my Nike+ on pace, as I knew the route I was doing was about 10 miles as it was a section of the 13 miles I did the other day. I kept an eye on it the whole time, and I managed to keep a steady warm up pace of about 10.05-10.09, except for the hills which I slowed down to around 10.45ish. I was worried I would feel tired, as after all our walking around London yesterday I felt shattered in the evening. But I was fine. Later on I upped the pace for a couple of miles at faster pace- these averaged at 9.54 which I was pretty pleased with.

I was just so happy to be out there. The route goes around the lakes, and then after a bit through some country lanes, and there were flowers out, bees out, birds singing, blue sky…. and I spent some time reflecting on how far I have come. When I started training for this, a 10 mile run was hard work, and left for a weekend long run. Now I can manage them after work, and it does not tire me out for the rest of the day. So I can see I am improving. I was glad to enjoy it too, as although the majority of my runs have been good, for example the 18 miler last week was really tough, and although I know it will not all be plain sailing, I primarily run because I love it, so it was a pleasure to have that today.

Before I left I got an email from No Meat Athelete (does anyone else subscribe to these?)- with some special links to download. There were 3 interviews with various vegan/ vegetarians (including Scott Jurek)- I listened to the Brendan Brazier interview today and it was so interesting. So if you would be interested, sign up to the no meat athelete email (click on the link at the start of this paragraph) and you should get the link for them.

One thing he said that made so much sense to me was to mentally break the marathon into quarters. The first 2 quarters should feel easy, as people would have run half marathons before, and you would be running at a slower pace. The third quarter is apparently mentally the toughest,, but then by the final quarter, you don’t have long to go, and the end is in sight etc. That really made sense to me, and I think that is how I am going to “arrange” my race.

Once home (10.5 miles in 1 hour 48) I was so thirsty (I did take a bottle of water + nuun with me, and it lasted until close to the end), so I had some alpro milk with nesquick. Yummy. And a honey stick bar.

After my shower it was lunch;

Those are red pears (they were on offer in Waitrose)- very soft pears in fact that are not red on the inside. But they are tasty. Plus a delicious food doctor pitta with some brazil cacao spread (I could not wait to try it!). And a fridge apple- great in this weather.

And- big news! After umming and ahhing for a while, I have booked my first sports massage! Eek! I have one booked for the day after my next 18 miler (and apparently the person doing the massage is also running “THE marathon” so hopefully will know how sore my legs will be)- and I signed up for 3, so I think I will see how that one goes and then possibly have one after the 20 miler and one after the actual day itself. Maybe. Or I will be so scared after the first one that I won’t go back! Haha!

Anyway, my packing is coming along nicely- so much harder than a normal holiday, as I don’t normally even take a hairdryer with me, but as we are going to a wedding I feel like I need to look presentable. Might even take some mascara with me- steady on now!

Laters 🙂