Marathon Training Week 8

Week 8. Halfway through the schedule. Started quietly and ended quietly.

The Monday was penciled in as a rest day which I was pleased with so I could recover from the previous day's 20 mile run.

The next day I was supposed to run fourteen hill repeats. I woke up tired and still a bit achy from the Sunday run so the duvet called me back and I postponed the run till Friday.

Back off to Holland and an 11 mile slow run on Wednesday morning. I've become more and more familiar with the area around the hotel in which I am staying so ventured out further into the countryside. There are loads of cycle lanes which I have to run in because there are very few pavements. I'm not sure on the etiquette of running in cycle lanes but I prefer to do that on a dark morning than run in the road! I was rewarded with the sight of a beautiful sunrise over snooker table flat farming fields. The temperature had warmed up a bit this week as well so I was able to run just in my t-shirt top.

Thursday is tempo run day (1 mile warm up, 3 miles at tempo speed and a 1 mile cool down) so I ran the 3 mile loop around the hotel to make up the distance.

Back home on Thursday evening and then up early the next morning to run the hills postponed from the Tuesday. I don't mind hills but I do find it a bit boring doing the seemingly endless repeats up and down the same hill for an hour or so at a time.

Saturday morning was back to normal and my 5 mile easy route.

Saturday evening I drank a bit too much and woke up on Sunday with something of a hangover. No fit state to run a half-marathon! So, I called off the solo race (not having found a half marathon race to participate in nearby). My dilemma now is to see if I can fit it back in to the schedule. I am due to have the Monday as a rest day but I don't think I'll have the time to run a half-marathon before work. It's possible but tight. I may just go out for a leg loosener and write this one off to a bad day at the office. Or I may go somewhere in between and run a 6 miler at half marathon pace. At the moment that appears to be the most likely.

I also have the problem that the 20 mile run I am supposed to be doing next Sunday will have to be brought forward to the Friday (when I will hopefully be working from home) because I am going on my stag weekend and will definitely not be in a fit state to run on the Saturday or Sunday. Juggle, juggle, juggle. Over the next few weeks I'll be juggling a lot more runs around as I have my wedding at the end of March on the Easter weekend followed by ten days in New Orleans on my honeymoon. I've run on holiday before but a honeymoon is a totally different kettle of fish!