I did an accidental 19k today - leaving me with another 2k to build to. I say accidental because I got my distances wrong - I set out aiming to do 18k then when I realised I had hit 18k, I noticed I wasn't exactly at home yet. I literally had to drag myself that last km and it was absolutely horrible!
If I was mentally ready for 19k I think I would have been fine - well more so than I was - but I could barely move my legs!
Was quite pleased with my pace at the start actually. I hit 5k in a fraction over 30:36, 10k in 01:03:12. That is not far off my best time actually for 10k. 01:02:12 was what I did at Leeds Castle last year and that was knowing I wouldn't need to push on afterwards. So I am well chuffed - finally feel like I'm building some pace back. My run on Thursday as part of running club definitely gave me that confidence boost.
A few things did start to pull me down at this point though:
First and foremost - my @$$. Seriously. After about 10k, it just stiffened up. I was really struggling to move my legs properly. Need to obviously try to get some gluteus endurance going on - or work out how to stop the @$$ cramps happening altogether!
Second - Hills! The bane of my life. I swear every single small upwards gradient feels like a mountain - and I seem to be on some horrible eternal uphill run - my mind clearly blocks out any memory I have of downhill running. At least I will be safe in the knowledge that my half marathon is a FLAT run. Not a hill in site - I hope...?
Third - Traffic. I kept stopping to cross roads, and to make sure there was no oncoming traffic. I suppose I could have tried to keep going and without stopping....Might have been the heat of the moment but having weighed up risking my life against risking my momentum, I came to the conclusion that the latter may be the more appropriate option. Again on race day - no cars and no traffic so I won't have that disruption.
Also I decided to venture out with 2 full 500ml bottles and after about 10k, they feel seriously heavy. My shoulders got a great workout at least. I think the race will (or at least should!) have drinks stations so I won't need to carry much.
Anyways I managed to get to 19km at 02:11:48. Puts me on course for a finish of around 2:25-2:26. Taking into account the above, the adrenaline on the day and the general effect of running in a group, with some good (demonic) training I would love to get down to 2:20. As long as there are no more blizzards, I guess I have no excuses.
7 weeks to go. 49 days to go. 21 training runs to go.14 weights sessions to go. 7 boot camps to go. 1 pair of legs to try to cope with all that.... err... woohoo??
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