Going further, getting slower

Another weekend gone by and another long run completed. After last week’s relatively poor efforts at training I thought I had better up the anti and attempt 25km (15.5 miles).

However, it was not a great run.  Indeed, just 3km in my legs already felt like lead and I considered just turning round and going home, having another attempt on Sunday morning.  Then I remembered that is was probably going to chuck it down on Sunday and if I wanted to get this week’s long run done in the dry then it was going to have to be that day, so I plodded on.

I managed to get through the first 10km at an ok pace and then it actually got a little bit easier, especially as I went past the halfway point, despite having to run up Pentonville hill yet again.  I continued to plod on but by the time I got to Stoke Newington, around 19km I knew that a full 25km was probably going to be beyond me, so I cut across Clissold park and went past the ½ marathon distance after 2 hours 11 minutes, 3 minutes slower than last week and 13 minutes slower than my personal best. I thought training was meant to make me quicker???!!!!!!

Still, in the end I managed 24km, although I did have to walk the final 1km but I expect there will be some walking in the final race as well.

Over the last few weeks I have been getting progressively more and more tired, but on the other hand I don’t really want to take a break from training with only 6 weeks, 6 days left until the race, and remember the final week of that is tapering down.

So this week it is all about little and often. Last week I did 18km in two biggish runs, but this week I am aiming to do around 25km spread over 4 visits to the gym, before having Saturday off. Then on Sunday it is the Silverstone half marathon!  The start line is the same as it is for the Grand Prix, so I am going to download The Chain by Fleetwood Mac and hit that as I go over the line!

You can keep track of my training by following @runningfatbloke on twitter. And remember, all this pain and suffering is in order to raise as much money as possible for the Willow Foundation, so please sponsor me at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/runningfatbloke. I only need another £309 to hit the £1,600 target!