57 Days To Go - Up's and Down's

Date & Time : 25/02/12 06:45
Distance : 18 miles
Total Training Distance (since beginning Jan 12) : 217 miles
Route & Stats : Outer Ring Road & Whitlingham Broad

Anyone who runs regularly will tell you that you have good days and bad days when it comes to training.  In my experience the bad days significantly out number the good days. But, when you have a good day, then you soon forget about the bad days.

This was a good day. I was up and about at the crack of dawn, and hit the road at 6:45am (that is hardcore for a Saturday isn't it?).  The sun was just coming up and there wasn't a breath of wind, perfect running conditions.  I had decided to run round the Norwich outer ring road first and then make up the remaining 4 miles with a loop around Whitlingham Broad.

I set out in an anti-clockwise direction heading east towards Thorpe St. Andrew, the sun on my face.  I got into a nice steady rhythym early on and before I knew it 4 or 5 miles had gone past and I was already heading up towards Sprowston with the sun now on my back, which felt great.  I stopped for a gel and a drink at 6 miles and then kicked on again.  I was feeling good and really enjoying being out so early.  No hip, back, knee or groin problems to report for the first time in a long time.  At 12 miles I stopped again at the BP garage near McDonalds by Hall Road, and though tempted to go in and get a sausage and egg McMuffin, I stuck to my plan and took on another gel and a banana.   That banana tasted amazing and gave me a real energy boost (will definitely take one with me next week for the Wymondham 20).   I finished the run strongly with a loop around the broad and was home by 9:45am.  Job done.

I was pleased with the pace too, moving average of 9:11 is not bad for a run of this distance at this stage.  My target pace for the marathon is 8:45 so I need to go a bit faster, but not much more.  With the Wymondham 20m race next Sunday (04/03), I will try and get closer to my target pace and aim to go under 3 hours if I can which will be a good improvement when I last did the race 2 years ago in 3h 12m.

My mid week training schedule is all over the place at the moment with all the travelling I am doing, but I can't get too stressed about it, and while the weekend long runs are going well then I am happy.  

BREAKING NEWS - just seen the weather forecast for Sunday (Wymondham 20) and it's going to be a shocker ..... shiiiiiitttt!