Pain is just in the head
The storm had to lay low for a week, I think I explained a lot already in my post last week. Last week has been manic and I barely had any time to write about anything although I have so much to write about.
Here is a little run-down of each of my runs since my last running post:
D-Day, a day to stand still at and also the first day I wanted to do a real spm test as my buddies 
Whilst I started really good and even set a new record for fastest KM (4:19) I lost my motivation due to the non-functioning of my watch and I also started too fast, so I couldn't maintain it. However it did pay off on my other runs throughout the week as they were faster despite feeling tired and even suffering with a lower-backache. My cadence was really good and my max cadence was 210 spm, so I'm proud of this first result and I have the basis to work upon. I know now that it pays off.
It was warm and I had back pains, so I decided that I wanted to take it slow, but ensure that I'd make it to the end. Distance was all that I cared about, I tried to focus on spm, but with the backpain that wasn't easy. I did feel better when I was moving, but it was still hampering me. Besides that it was also very warm and I really didn't want to overdo it. It still was a good run under any circumstances and this is due to the fact that I kept focussing on keeping a steady spm. My max was only 170 spm, but still good enough as I was steady.
I wanted to take it easy, I still had pains, but my tired legs carried me by themselves and I think I automatically made bigger steps. I had a good constant pace and high intensity. I felt really good afterwards and my pains were barely bothering me. Again my highest spm did not go over 170
I set off early as it was going to be a warm day. I felt really good and rested, but the backache was still with me, although it was much less than before. I started slow as I had to go uphill and then picked up the pace. This was a good strategy as I had a normal/good first 8 km in around 43 minutes. My neighboor then joined me for the 11 km run, which was at a nice average pace and I even made a bit time to drink a bit of my energy drink, to ensure that I kept my hydration levels and sodium levels up. I just learnt that I am losing a lot of salt during running and this could hamper my success on M-Day, so that's something I have to work on.
The run was good as it was really warm and we also had to do plenty of climbing. In total I climbed 252 altitude meters on the day. I had a nice cadence of 159 spm with a max of 186 (which was probably downhill) . Altogether it was a good run under hot circumstances, but the feeling of accomplishment was even better because of that.
Here are my 4 longest runs in comparison with one another:
Conclusion
A difficult week, but I kept going. I learnt that I have a pretty steady pace of around 160 spm, this is something that I'll try to improve in the future to help with endurance, but it's good to fall back on that basis as it also means an average of around 5:26 min/km. If I could maintain that for the full 42 km, I could finish the marathon under 4 hours, which will be a huge accomplishment.
As I'm writing this, my backaches have almost disappeared, so I know I did good to keep running, despite having the feeling of giving up a few times. This was not the kind of pain that could/should stop me. I feel that I have the mental discipline to finish a marathon when it comes to it on the day!
Below is the schedule that I'm aiming to stick to:
Thanks for your support!
The running community is for me one of the nicest and closest communities I've ever been part of and they've been really supportive and helpful. There are people with varying levels of experiences from beginners to coaches. If you're a runner or want to start running after my posts and want to connect with other runners to share experiences, ask for tips and/or advice, join us on our discord chat by following this link.
For those of you that still haven't heard of the 
Another way to get rewarded is by joining the #runforsteem challenge from 
I look forward to hearing your advice, responses, encouragements, feedback and comments.
Vote for us as your witness in 2 clicks, click on this link and click on 'continue':
https://steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=swisswitness&approve=1
If you don't care about witnesses, please allow me to use your vote and you will automatically vote for the witnesses that I vote for. To set a proxy, click on this link and 'confirm':
https://steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-proxy?proxy=wolfje&approve=1
Keep running and stay fit!
🐺je
!steemitworldmap 47.334180 lat 8.386726 long Oberwil-Lieli, Aargau D3SCR
