One of the 2 castles that I ran to on Thursday
the Force is strong or the discipline is high … or maybe I’m just plain stupid!
A fantastic week to report on, but not an easy one. I’ve been suffering with a lack of sleep. Some days I woke up at 3AM and others at the latest 4AM. Yesterday I woke up at 5AM after a 6 hour sleep, which was more than I had in the previous days and today I had an alarm set as I had to do my run early so that we could do something as a family.
Despite the lack of sleep and the tiredness and pains associated with the tiredness I had some fantastic runs. This was a good learning lesson as even on the day of the marathon I can be tired or suffer with a lack of sleep due to the excitement, but I learnt to keep going … maybe I am stupid, maybe I’m just stubborn, maybe I need some rest, but so far I’m going from strength to strength. However if I keep having this lack of sleep I should take it a bit easier in my trainings, otherwise I’ll injure myself.
However it can be difficult to compose yourself when you have such cute cheerleaders:
It's not every day that I have such cute cheerleaders
Here is a little run-down of each of my runs since my last running post:
the Conditions were in my favour, but dark clouds were ahead of me!
I was already awake at 3AM today and it had been raining horribly during the night with no sight of relenting. So I decided to go early, as conditions were not going to get any better either, so at 4:45AM I left the house and guess what … it stopped raining!
I had a pleasant run. Its a new course for me as I am looking for a course where I can do my speed runs as well. I decided not to go into the woods and tire myself out from the offset but run on concrete pavements and that way also prepare myself more for the actual marathon. So a fairly easy and straightforward run and course and the only thing worth mentioning was the weather.
a Picture from the castle overlooking the course that I've ran so often and from where I've photographed the castle so many times
I had woken up early again and decided to go to work early, then do my run before work so that I wouldn’t have to sacrifice my lunchbreak today. Again I set off really early at 5:30AM and the sun wasn’t even out yet, so it was a bit chilly. I wanted to take it easy, but my legs had a certain jump in them and I just took off like a jet and I felt good about it. My first 4 kilometers were all below the 5 minutes.
I realised that this would be one of the last opportunities for me to go up to the castle that I had been photographing so many times for you guys, that I decided to go up to the castle. To get to the castle I had to climb some steps and this took my momentum away, that and the fact that I stopped to take some nice shots from a new perspective for you guys, so I hope you enjoy them.
The run in itself went really nice as I said before and overall I did the 11 kilometers with an average of 5:08 min/km which is still a fantastic feat by all standards. My average spm was 162 and I achieved a high of 229.
I was there and here's the proof!
Maybe my only normal run of the week. I set off a bit earlier as I was bored, but otherwise it was a normal run. I felt good and I had a good pace throughout. I wanted to take it easier after the run I had yesterday and for that reason I never pushed myself during this run. My average spm was 153 with a high of 160.
After yesterday's run, I just had to take this picture
One I'm particularly proud of
My first half-marathon! I did it, I lasted the distance.
I had a lot of pains and feelings to deal with during this run. I had little pains in several places during this run and each time I said to myself, ’see how it goes and if the pain persists I’ll have to give up’. However each time the pain went away and I was able to continue. You can imagine that I’m very proud of this run. I’ve officially run half the distance of a marathon now!
My neighboor was going to join me today, so I decided that the best way to achieve the set distance was to run the same course twice. The signs were in my favour, the weather was pleasant and I even saw a fox underway. I decided to take it easy as it’s all about lasting the distance and I had a few intensive runs last week and I was tired and I had small aches.
I continued the routine I had started a few weeks ago with a small breakfast and some electrolyte drink before setting off and this helped me along the way as well. I also planned to stop for small breaks at the 8 km and 16 km marks, which I upheld as well.
Not a bad spot for a quick break
I had my first stop just after the 8 km mark at a little pool, where I took the above picture. Here I had a bit of my gel, took a salt-tablet and drank 250ml water. I don’t know what gave me the boost, but afterwards I felt so energised and good that I had 3 very fast kilometers, before arriving home again to meet with my neighboor. There I filled my water up again and we set off fort he second round.
This round we were a bit slower than usual, but we had a nice steady pace and the company helped me last the distance. Today I achieved a mental and physical milestone which is a fantastic feat to build upon to last the distance on M-Day.
My average spm was 160 with a high of 177, it shows I’m quite stable on that aspect, but it still has a lot of room for improvement.
I feel really good about myself at this moment!
Here are my 4 longest runs in comparison with one another:
Conclusion
A week where I realised the impact of sleep and nutrition. Both aspects are hugely important for the success on the day itself and I hope that I will be able to get both under control over the coming 19 weeks. I also need to work on working more efficiently and less hard as I see that my health stats are always at the top-end of the scales. This could impact my performance on the long run or I could even injure myself and then it’s all for nothing.
I am considering skipping my run on Wednesday to give myself an extra day rest and then start this training week on Thursday with the long (slow/easy) run. I have my next speed session planned for Friday, but this all depends on how I feel during the week and I have to decide on the day itself. Better to take it easy and last the day than injure myself when I’m on such a high at the moment.
Below is the schedule that I'm aiming to stick to (depending on my fitness, health and nutrition levels):
Thanks for your support!
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