With the Inverness Half marathon on the horizon ( March 13 ), I have been increasing my mileage and trying to get in some longer runs at the weekend. This will be the 5th time I have taken part in the Inverness Half – a really enjoyable race on a great course early in the season. And for me a good way to get into a training groove when the dark nights and miserableness of January and February might otherwise put a bit of a dampener on motivation.
This year I am really enjoying my running and so far no injuries. After the daily effort of December running with its focus on short – it’s good to get back into more of a mix of runs,and have the time to do different routes and distances. The weather has been reasonable – save for the odd crazy storm – so no call offs so far due to ice. We even managed a run in snow.
Having prepared for this race a few times before – and looking back on previous years with varying degrees of commitment – I am definitely feeling less panicked about the race and my ability to get round and feel ok. Sometimes I even allow myself to dream about a PB !
A few things are different from other years but mostly I have lost a bit of weight and this has made my running much easier. I am also doing some strength and conditioning training albeit intermittently.
One of my work colleagues recently qualified as a personal trainer – so I do a morning strength and circuits session outside in the local park with her once a week when we can manage it around work schedules. I can’t say I really look forward to it – but as with all exercise I feel pretty fabulous afterwards – and exercising in the morning outdoors always sets me up for the day, even if by 5pm I am struggling to sit down !
So running generally is more enjoyable and I am making a token effort to add in some other stuff to keep my creaky body upright for 13.1 miles – but the longer run is still a thought. Alison, my regular running buddy, is also racing in Inverness so together we have done 3 x 10 milers , and to keep it fresh we have chosen 3 different routes .
When we do our longer runs our conversations naturally expand to fit the time available and topics are wide ranging and diverse – but after many miles shared,
so far we have not encountered any awkward silences.
Now all I have to do to become a real runner is embrace my last run bogey and do some speed-work – but maybe that’s one for next year 😉
The unfinished sentence... 