...you enjoy long runs?

This week again was a mix of runs as I am heading to Birmingham and Wales for the long weekend. With the rain that is supposed to drown us this weekend I thought it best to get my long run in during the week. This seems to be becoming a habit! Anyway after my awful run in Newark at the weekend (got sunburnt and could not keep myself going at all for the 5.7miles) I was in no mood for my long run Tuesday. I started on Tuesday not Monday for 2 reasons:

1. Monday was journal club at 9am. There was no way I was getting up at 6am to go for 9miles. 

2. I was still slightly sick from the weekend. I am not liking these 2 day hangovers!

Anyway Tuesday morning off I set with a grumpy face on. Though I changed my route up a bit thinking this might help and it did. I actually ended up doing the route twice instead of a long route along the canal towards Nottinghill. This was nice and different and not too bad elevation wise. It was a quieter part of the canal which I liked a lot. Though I was at 8.2miles with another .2miles to go before home so did have to run around some housing estates to get my miles in. But starting slow again meant I felt fine for the whole run and actually really enjoyed it! Was half considering only doing 5miles but pushed on and felt great! I managed a nice slow 9min/miles which was great. Finally slowing myself down to enjoy the longer distances. I don't want to go much slower then this (if I want to PB) but we'll see.

Another part of this week was my bite for the triathlon/duathlon. I think I really want to do one! It'd be fun and I can actually swim which will be handy. I think I'd prefer to do a triathlon then a marathon any day. It's more versatile and man running for 4 and a half hours does not sound appealing right now! So maybe a sprint marathon to get me going? With this in mind I set off for the gym last night to get some recovery miles in and a cycle. My recovery miles were shit. I did 8min/miles for 5km. Yeah that's not recovery but I always get confused on the treadmill and just kept going with it! I did do a nice 6minute 9.30min/mile cool down at least. I then hit the bike straight away and decided to just do a 30minute cycle to see how it felt. 7.4miles later I was done and not sweating that much. The next step in this is to head to the pool next week and see if I can still keep my head above water. 

The downside to this hour and a half in the gym (did core as well) is that my legs are a little stiff and sore today. Thank god it's a rest day! Going to have to remember to treat my body nicely! Tomorrow is a maybe 3miler around Birmingham and then a 5miler while in Wales? Let's hope they get completed!

So far 20miles of exercise in! Boom!

....motivation is key!

So I have been recently unmotivated since my last race and I decided not to moan about it on here but put my head down and rest for a week and then pick myself back up for the next training session. This has only been my second week this year that I took off due to lack of will to run. I think next year I will either block my races closer or not do so many! The next race is 7 weeks away and it is a half marathon! Uh oh! So lesson learnt! Training all year round isn't fun. Make it more fun in 2013!

 So half marathon talk..... normally I pick a schedule and stick to it rigidly (or try). This year I started into my training late and was running longer miles then I normally do when I start so I thought it was okay to slack. Now slacking means only running 3 times a week so far but I really wanted to be up to 5 times so my speedwork would really count on race day! Anyway runnersworld.com your sub 2hour half marathon schedule is hard! I am managing the intervals and one normal run from their schedule. I am then using the long run distance from my old schedule and then throwing in short runs with my house mate here and there ( I know that means 4 but I switch around sometimes). So with 7 weeks to go I am up to 8.2miles on my long run at a 8.45min/mile pace! I'm quite happy with that but still feel underprepared. Time will tell! I think I'm going to treat this as a fun run rather then a beatmyPB race.

Running this week has been nice and different to most summer runs I've been doing. This is with regards to how runners interact with me. In winter time people are very vocal and friendly however when the sun comes out it seems the unfriendly runners come with it. I saved a poll from fetcheveryone.com as it didn't seem to represent my area well. Yesterday on my long run surprisingly the cyclists were more friendly but I did also get a "hello" and a friendly wave from a toddler!

This is a blog topic I've been wanting to cover for a while and would love to know other peoples feed back on this. Do you say hello to fellow runners or keep your head down/ to the side to avoid any interaction. The first time I had a friendly hello from a fellow runner it made me really happy and I vowed every morning each runner I passed would also get a "good morning!" no matter how tired I felt!

So other then that! Royal Parks Half marathon training is in full swing! My 8 miles were great. Turns out if you start slow and continue steady (as I had been told) you can actually get a lot further and feel great! 

I am going to take that advice again next week on my 9miler!