Back to Brighton

It was back in February 2010 when we took the drive to Brighton for my first half marathon.  The closer we got to the coast, the more apocalyptic the weather.  By the time we arrived, the wind was so strong we were walking at a 45 degree angle to simply stay upright, and the torrential rain howling in off the sea was sideways, upways, and downways.  It's the only time I've ever seen real surf in Brighton!  I nearly didn't start, but after all the hard work I'd put into my training I couldn't bear not to, but fully expected that I'd probably pull out part way due to the weather.  It was horrendous and I felt as though I was carring an extra 5kg in water weight in each shoe, but I got there in the end and was glad to be running with a friend from work for the extra moral support especially at about the 15km mark.  In reality, I think Linc drew the short straw having to stand outside in the freezing rain, at least I was running to keep myself warm! The forecast is looking much better this year so fingers crossed it holds out.

I finished that first race in 2 hours 12 minutes and my other two half marathons have been both just over 2 hours, so I'm determined to break the barrier on Sunday.  With good weather and a flat course I should be on track, fingers crossed!

The only hurdle may be my sore hip - it's not bad but I'm very aware of being careful with it.  I have been resting it since Wednesday and doing lots of stretching, it feels much better today than it did earlier in the week so I hope it's fine.  I have a massage and a physio appointment booked next week so I'm looking foward to some advice on that.

Training Report
Tuesday 5th February
30 mins hills - level 10 at 10km/hr on the treadmill hill pattern - it was tough!! A really really good workout for such a short time.  Hated it but loved it at the same time.

Wednesday 6th February
13km fartlek run to work.  Didn't do as much fartleking as I intended as I was a bit stiff from hills the day before, but added 5km onto my normal run to work by going around Hyde Park.  Had some flashbacks to watching the Olympics and Dan's London ITU races, although unfortunately at 7.30am on a Wednesday morning there wasn't many people out cheering me on.   There was, however, a runaway horse galloping down the horse path, complete with saddle but no rider, I took the precaution of hiding behind a tree so I didn't alarm it any more than it already was! No sign of the rider, and it was going like a bat out of hell so who knows where it ended up, if it kept going the way it did it would have very soon arrived on Kensington High Street which I'm sure would have caused quite a stir.

Friday 8th February
8.2km run to work. Absolutely freezing at minus 1, but the sun was out and the days are getting longer.

Saturday 9th February
16.5km run along the river.  Longest I've done in quite a long time, the weather was quite good and not too cold.  Popped into a servo halfway to buy a bottle of water to have with my disgusting energy slime, they're so feral and I hate eating them but I must say I did feel great in the second half of the run when usually on a run that long by the end of it I'm shattered. Ran along the road where the helicopter crashed the other week and they were putting up a new crane.  You could see where the footpath had melted where the jet fuel had burned.

Tuesday 12th February
8.2km run home.  Horrible run, I was uncomfortable, blocked nose, sore legs, just really hated it. Worst run I've had in ages.

Wednesday 13th February
10km run into work via Battersea Park. Cold again but sunny.  My hip was a bit sore especially at the start of the run so I didn't do the intervals I was intending to do.  And skipped the rest of the week's training before Brighton, to try to let it rest a bit.

Coming up next
Sunday 17th February
Brighton Half Marathon

Next week
3 x 45 minute runs, a 60 min massage and a physio appointment. Hopefully all goes well as then it's a 23k run on Saturday.