DCM Week 9: 8km Regular Part 1

Up at 6:30 this morning and out the door before 7am for a nice 8km run, well it wasn't as nice as I would have liked.  I found it a little tough.  I'm not sure if it is down to that week and a half of no training due to illness or if it is due to being really tired and not fully awake or functioning at that hour of the morning.  Maybe it was a combination of the both.

Any way the weeks to my first marathon is not in the single digits and I'm starting to get a little worried.  I'm not in the shape I would like to be at this moment in time or covering the distances I would hope to cover.  I'm still going to plod along and if I have to walk the last few km's I will.  This is all about finishing, I can always try to be better prepared next time. 9 weeks to go and I aim to finish my training schedule and hope that will be enough to get me to the finish line, one step at a time.

DCM Week 19: Long Run

My long run was on a Thursday last week as I was on a stag weekend in Liverpool and I knew there would be no possible way I would get a run in over the weekend.  I started out from work and had the Garmin set for a 26km long run but I knew that would be optimistic.  After missing training for a week and a half with pharyngitis and a fever to accompany it I knew I would have to start back easy and was not too happy to be losing a weekend also so the aim was 26km but I would be happy with 16km, or so I told myself.

It was a nice enough evening but my legs didn't last the full journey.  I managed 17.5km and then I stopped as I was afraid I would bring on an injury if I kept going as my legs had nothing left.  I feel like I've gone a step backwards but I'll just start building up again and hopefully I reach my goal and complete the Dublin City Marathon in a reasonable time.

DCM Week 12: Long Run

This morning I got up to run the longest run I've run to date.  I got dressed, dropped a Nuun tablet in my water, put on my earphone, turned on my ipod, strapped up my right knee, turned on my Garmin and began running.  A nice 500m warm up and some stretches and the run began.

As I'm in a small, small village today the options of somewhere safe and flat to run are a little limited so I ended up running a single road up and down for what must have been 40 times.  I had to go back to the house to refill my water bottles twice but that was fine as the house was never more than 500m away due to where I was running.

The inital stages were a little tough but I kept myself going by not looking at the Gamin, instead I focused on the water and when that was running out.  At a refill stop I allowed myself to check the watch.  1st stop 11km down.  2nd stop 20km done.

Getting started the third time was a struggle as my legs did not seem to have enjoyed the stop and were getting very heavy.  I pushed through and thankfully made it to 25.01km, my longest run ever both in terms of time and distance.  Next weeks long run is only 16km so it will feel like a holiday.

DCM Week 12: 6.5km Run Part 2

3 days in a row done.  The last time I did this was back in December 2010 and I injured myself.  I hope that doesn't happen this time, touch wood.  I'm not superstitious by the way :-)

A big run coming up on Saturday.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.  Ah well only one thing to do... Run It!!!