First Long Run of 2008

Sunday 3rd February
Had made up my mind, before yesterday's rollicking believe it or not, that I would attempt my first proper long run of the year. When I say proper, I mean marathon training distance as opposed to half marathon. I tried to prepare for it as I would a race, ie pasta and an early night the evening before, and changed the music on my MP3 to make it more interesting.

In the end I was out on my feet for 3 hours and 20 minutes and surprised myself. I just took it nice and steady, had a few walk breaks where I needed them, and took along an energy gel and a bottle of powerade. The route was starting from the gym, up the old railway path, through old town, down on to Marlborough road, where I basically ran the half marathon route, heading back via the town centre, past the oasis and back to the gym.

It was cold and windy, but I stood up to it well. My legs felt surprisingly fresh considering the weight I had been using in pump yesterday. I only really started to tire after 2hrs 45 mins, and from then it was a mental battle rather than a physical one. I dug deep and kept going, all the way back to the gym.

Felt very tired but exhilarated afterwards - it felt so good to finally notch up a really long run distance after my injury problems, and I didn't suffer anywhere near as much as I thought I would.

As a result, I have decided to enter the Blackpool marathon at the end of April, as long as my friend Sharla (a girl I go to the track with) is still up for car sharing. Knowing her she'll already have entered, so I don't foresee a problem with that.

Monday 4th February
PT session with Ali today. As this is just core work I assumed my legs would be glad of a rest, but as it turned out I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be and manged 4km on the treadmill to warm up before Ali arrived.

The session itself went well, Ali was very happy with my technique on pretty much all my exercises (I'll elaborate on the schedule at a later date) and gave me a few variations to work on. Even on the exercises I was unsure of it turned out my technique was pretty much spot on. It was hard work mind you, and I'm sure I'll feel the effects tomorrow.

Needless to say we had a few words about my diet afterwards and how I need to improve it. I've decided that I need to do something fairly radical, and have entered into a pact with my mate Andy to give up alcohol for lent, starting Friday (I'm going to the theatre Thursday, so will want to have a glass or two of wine). I'm quite excited about this; it was when I gave up drinking for lent a few years ago that I got into running, so hopefully this will be what I need to shed that stone and give my running a kick-start ahead of the Berlin marathon in September.