Funds raised

Yesterday was officially one month to go, and my fundraising is pretty much complete with only £100 still to go.  We had a very successful afternoon tea in Surrey organised by Kathy, the weather looked like it wasn't on our side but it held off for long enough for a few games of tunnel ball, egg and spoon, and relays.  Some serious cupcake baking took place and combined with the auction and people's generous donations, we raised over £300.

Training is going well and I think my body is finally getting used to backing up from the long runs on the weekend, as I haven't been as stiff and sore as I have been. Time is going so fast and there is only 3 long runs to go, 21st April will be here before I know it!  

I can't believe how BAD the weather still is!! It is just unbelievable. March has been colder than both December and January, apparently.  The temperatures are bitter and the wind is howling.  Snow is forecast everywhere for this weekend.  So I look forward to tomorrow's run.

Tomorrow 23. Mar

2^° High  -1^°  Low

Rain / Snow

Chance of Rain 80%

Wind E at 24 kmph

Snowfall 3-7 cm

 

Training Report

Friday 8th March

45m treadmill hills - took it relatively easy only on Level 5 but was still tough! Trying to do a bit more treadmill stuff to take the pressure off my legs pounding on cement.

 

Saturday 9th March

27km along the Thames from Oval to Barnes.  By far my worst long run. I felt really tired and exhausted, could have stopped by 16km easily.  But it's all in the mind really and I started off not feeling in the mood and I'm sure that's why it was so awful!

 

Sunday 10th March

40 min treadmill recovery. Just to keep my legs going.

 

Wednesday 13th March

13km run home from work. Slow and tough but noticed how the two rest days in a row (because of weather not by choice!) had let my legs recover better.

 

Thursday 14th March

13km run into work.  Felt good but freezing as usual at minus 2.

 

Sunday 17th March

29km around Tooting Common, Clapham Common, Battersea Park, Hyde Park, and Wandsworth Common.  Missed the worst of the weather by going on Sunday rather than Saturday, but it still rained, at least it wasn't really windy.  Not a bad run and felt much better on this one than I did on the prior week's 27km.  Completely exhausted afterwards!

 

Tuesday 19th March

6.5k recovery on the treadmill. Sounds easy - was actually hard!

 

Wednesday 20th March

10k run into work, quite a nice morning for it although my backpack felt a bit heavier than usual.

 

Friday 22nd March

45min intervals on elliptical. Taking the pressure off my legs in preparation for the long one tomorrow.

 

Coming up next

Saturday 23rd March

29km...the third last long run...

 

Monday 25th March

6.5km recovery

 

Tuesday 26th March

10k

 

Wednesday 27th March

13k fartlek

 

Friday 29th March

32km, 20 miles, the longest run.

 

 

 

T minus 46 days and counting

And I definitely am counting.
Five weekend long-distance runs to go. Total 27 training sessions to go. About £700 of fundraising to go.

Although my legs are generally tired, sore and aching, I haven't had any real problems and a session at the Osteopath on the weekend loosened me up a bit.  Three more sessions with him prior to the race will hopefully be enough to keep them going until 21st April.

The long runs on the weekend have been ok, boring, long, draining, but not too hard.  I've found the recovery runs on the Monday or Tuesday after, MUCH harder, even though they're really short.  Struggling to push myself to do the mid-week interval sessions and have only been doing about half of them as intervals, the rest I have just been running at a steady pace as I'm trying to listen to my body and not get injured.

Training report
Tuesday 26th Feb
8.2km recovery run home. Horrible and took me 55 minutes!! Enough said.

Wednesday 27th Feb
16km run into work. Was meant to be fartlek but I just ran a steady pace.  My poor legs.  A horrible sort of foggy rain or "fairy's piss" as Prainy so eloquently puts it.

Thursday 28th Feb
45min treadmill hills.  On level 7 at 10km/hr, was hard work but short and sharp so I didn't mind it.  Osteo said hills may aggravate my hip so trying to keep my technique spot on while doing these sessions.

Saturday 2nd March
25km long run around Tooting, Clapham and Wandsworth Commons (twice).  Quite a nice morning, not too chilly and a bit of sun!  Maximised my time on grass to take some pressure off my legs. Sadly my iPod died 15 mins into the run so it was quite a boring remaining 2 hours 15 minutes.  Wore my stylish new water bottle belt which actually worked really well. Had a bit of a dizzy/shaky episode when I finished but it was immediately solved by some lollies so I think I need more than one gel on runs longer than 2 hours.

Monday 4th March
6.5km recovery run home. Even worse than last week! Took me about 45 minutes and I had to walk every now and then. Really bad.

Wednesday 6th March
10km intervals to work.  Actually managed to do 30 mins of intervals and felt quite good once I'd warmed up.  The weather is much warmer this week, about 6 degrees this morning, and it really makes a difference to how I feel running.

Coming up next
Thursday 7th March
45 min treadmill hills

Friday 8th March
6.5km steady

Saturday 9th March
27km - eek!
then only 3 weeks of full training to go before things start to ease off...