New update

Wow it's been a while. First things first... FALSE ALARM, FALSE ALARM. All is well (and thank goodness for that!!)

So, back to regular programming. I am currently in the midst of a sloth week - completely unplanned, but it's happening anyway. I ran on Tuesday morning (and pretty fast too actually - 4.8km in 28:33... I really should have gone on another 200m and got my coveted sub-30 minute 5k, but such is life). Today I was supposed to ride to work, and didn't. Monday I was supposed to cross train, and didn't. Tomorrow I am going to run in the morning though. Friday is a scheduled rest day, but I'll try and do something light, because I am feeling a bit slack. Having said that, I am going to make a concerted effort to be kind to myself. I am going through a really, really crap time right now, and putting extra expectations on myself is not helping anyone. Work is a whole new level of stressful, the family is being demanding, and there just aren't enough hours in the day at the moment. Such is life - I'm just going to do the best I can with what I'm facing, and hope for easier and happier times ahead.

Anyway, back to the running. We are now less than 3 weeks out from the HM, and I'm varying between excitement and freaking out. I did really well with my long run of 16km 2 Saturday's ago, including a pretty hilly circuit. But last Saturday's 17.2km was a bit of a disaster, which has dented the confidence a little bit.

It was pretty dismal weather and started raining not long after I set out, which didn't help my mood any. The biggest problem though was the pain in my legs - my right shin in particular. I've had shin splints before in my long distant gymnastics past, and I really don't want to go there again. I've had some soreness in the shins from time to time, but it usually passes pretty quickly as I warm up into the run. This didn't happen on Saturday though, and it just got worse. I eventually stopped about the 6 or 7km mark, and discovered I had a big egg on the side of my shin. I did some self massage and found a spot a bit above the egg which absolutely killed to push on it... so I pushed on it and rubbed it (and swore a lot), and managed to release whatever was causing the problem. Then I resumed the run, and about 3km further along, I was pain free. Weird.

So, by the 10km mark or thereabouts, I found my rhythm and did pretty well for the last 7km. Seriously, a 10km lead-in to the comfortable section? That's ridiculous. Anyway, the final time was 1:50, at an average pace of 9.3km. I have one more long run (19km) this Saturday, then it's taper time and the big race the following weekend. And then 2 weeks after that, I'll be sailing the South Pacific :-)

14.5km... mixed reactions

I am not that long back from my Saturday long run, which took off about 5 hours after schedule. I woke up when my alarm went off, felt like death, took a tablet and went back to bed. I still wasn't feeling it when I got up hours later, but I eventually dragged myself out and hit the roads. I don't know what's making me feel so tired and ick at the moment, but I wish it would go away, it's very annoying.

The early part was really tough and for a good part of the run, I really didn't feel like I'd be able to make it. But I just made a deal with myself to keep plodding along on my planned route, and when I couldn't run any more, I'd walk. I still had to cover the 14.5km, no matter of the pace. I managed to keep running the whole way, although there were a couple of pretty damn slow km's in there. By the time I got to the downhills at about the 12km mark, I felt OK - how perverse. At that point I knew for sure that I would make it home, even if it was slower than I would like.

In my defence, I was faced with headwinds today, which suck. The wind had pretty much died down to nothing by the time I looped back and was headed for home, and should have had a tail wind. Typical! I was also running in the sun a good part of the way. It's pretty cold here today, but even at low temperatures I don't like running in the sun. I think I'm part vampire.

Anyway, lap times -

1st km 6.08.71
2nd km 6.16.81
3rd km 6.12.45
4th km 6.10.96
5th km 6.24.15
6th km 6.22.04
7th km 6.35.39
8th km 6.40.97
9th km 7.01.62
10th km 6.46.42
11th km 6.47.42
12th km 6.35.44
13th km 6.18.34
14th km 6.16.92
0.5km 3.07.92

Total 14.5km, 1.33.45, 9.3km/h

Hmm, when I look at the stats, I'm wondering if I just went out too hard. The first 2.5km include some pretty good hills, so I might have been pushing a bit hard through there for a long distance run. Pacing, pacing, pacing. It would be good if I could find some routes that are more undulating rather than long steady downs, long steady ups. 3.5km constant gradual uphill from the 7km mark is unpleasant!