Well, now in to week 2 of a 16 week plan to train for the Steyning Stinger half marathon on the 6th March 2011.
I find it quite hard working out what training I should be doing…. There is so much conflicting advice online and so many different training plans you can follow… I have developed my own mix based on what I have read online and what I know of the terrain of the race. The race isn’t a normal half marathon.. Last year it was -4C and includes climbs of 240m primarily cross country over the South Downs.. So I am expecting my time to be quite slow compared to lots of half marathons. I believe the current women’s record for the half marathon is 1:46. Based on the fact that in last weeks 10k I was about twice as slow as the fastest runner this gives me an approximate time of 3 1/2 hrs ! I do think I can do better than that and My run yesterday was similar terrain, 10.25 miles in 2:07 so I hope to complete the half marathon in 2:30 to 3:00.
This week I have run a total of 20.96 miles, split over 4 runs… I did two shorter 2.5 mile runs, one 5.5 mile run (all on roads) and yesterday’s 10.25 mile run…
Yesterdays run was a bit tough at times.. I found the hills hard going, it was below freezing all the way and when I reached the highest point of the run the winds increased at it started to snow. I also think I didn’t eat the right things before running (just toast) and ate too soon to running. I did try a new drink thing… Some fizzy tablets added to water to replace salts etc I think this did make a difference to plain water but I still haven’t really mastered the art of drinking whilst running !
I also took my Canon G10 with me on a separate pouch on my waist pack. This is something I won’t do again.. It just seemed too much in the way and in the wrong place wherever I put it, next time I’ll take my really tiny camera that will fit in my normal bumbag.
I think I am also getting on top of the blisters I have been getting on the arches of my feet. I stopped a couple of times yesterday to adjust my trainers and think I have just not had them down up tight enough. It seemed to make a real difference, I did also tape my feet up before I started with zinc oxide tape over the bits that have blistered. It would be great to have blister free running, not something I have managed to date !
Anyway, these are a few of the photos from my run yesterday.
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