Achy legs part 2

My legs are aching once again because I've pushed the boundaries by running just over eleven miles this morning.

Even though my batteries died in my Garmin GPS device, I was doing an out and back course, so I know the distance because I'd run 5.6 miles when I turned round and headed for home.

Anyway, my legs feel very much like they did last Sunday when I ran 8.75 miles. However, I feel much better about it because I still have five weeks to go to the half marathon and only two miles to add to my distance.

I really do live in a lovely part of the country. I was noticing the fields, trees, sheep and wildlife along the route and thinking how lucky I am.

At one point a farmer drove past me in his tractor and I thought at first that he was singing, until I noticed half a dozen sheep in his trailer and realised it was them. They weren't actually singing I hasten to add, but maybe my ability to identify sounds is affected by tired legs and general knackerdness.

This afternoon we're having a family celebration for my youngest's 14th birthday, which should be fun with 4 generations of the family present.

Half marathon wobbles

Tough this morning as I racked up 8.75 miles at an average pace of 9:28 minutes per mile. It was hard work.

Another 4.35 miles to add until I'm up to the half marathon distance, and six weeks to go from today.

I need to be able to comfortably run the half marathon at 10:30 pace. Sounds relatively easy but building and being comfortable with the half marathon distance is going to be the key.

Sitting here now feeling quite tired, but a few gentle one-milers over the next few days should hopefully see me ready to up the ante.

Gulp!

Time to build

A quick one this morning because there's stuff to do, and tomorrow I need to go out for a longer run.

I have impulsively volunteered to be a pacer for the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon.

I'm only pacing the 2 hour 20 minute runners, which is 25 or 30 minutes slower than my normal half marathon time.

But then again the last time I ran a half marathon was four years ago, AND I haven't run more than five and a half miles for over fourteen months.

I think I need to build up a bit of mileage between now and six weeks tomorrow.

Day 60 - another milestone

First day of my 3rd month of running a mile each day. I never expected to get this far when I started the experiment 59 days ago.

It was great running in sunshine again this morning after not seeing it for a while, although we had to step very carefully as it was still icy at just after seven o'clock this morning.

A bit late posting this as I've been in London today and I haven't worked out whether I can do this on my iPhone yet.

I loved the Winter Olympics men's ice hockey final last night, so much so that I missed the celebration drink for the half marathon helpers. Oh well, Winter Olympics only comes once every four years.

Yay for Canada! It's great having dual citizenship as my countries got 15 gold medals between them (GB you did let the side down slightly on that score).

Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon

Ran to my local Sainsbury's and back today, almost 2 miles.

That was after helping out with the TW Half Marathon earlier this morning. The weather was appalling for the runners but still nearly 1800 of them finished, so congratulations to all of them.

I got it wrong before, I was in the drop out car and not the sweep car. Commiserations to the three who we picked up in the drop out car, who unfortunately sustained injuries en route, so we had to ferry them back to race HQ. Not that I want to give the impression that running is dangerous at all.

Kelly Holmes was brilliant. She started the race and was still there to applaud every runner across the finish line.