127 Days, 15 Hours and 11 Minutes to go!

No, I did not calculate that myself, it is on the website and why on earth I did not think of that ages ago, I have no idea! Moving on….

I am starting to ramp up my training again, a few weeks of downtime, eating a bit too indulgently, doing less running, hardly any strength training, and whoops, 1kg heavier than before, all around the mid section! Not exactly where I would like to be, fatter…

Yesterday Geoff and I went for a run around the Mount (http://www.tikitouring.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-mount-maunganui.htm). We did two laps and it felt really good. The sun was just coming up, it was chilly but a good temperature to run in. 

Today was a strength training day and I think I shall be paying for it tomorrow. Things hurt a bit…..

Mentally I am in a good space. I know I can do this and it feels like the right time. It has taken a while to get my head around the correct training schedule for me. I have to take into account that I work two jobs and also have a family, as well as being a little older than I think I am! haha! However, I think I have it sussed now and this programme I have set myself should keep me motivated, strong and building up in an injury free way.

Onwards and upwards……

Brrrrrr!

It is really cold today! After all the wonderful crisp sunny days we’ve been having, today has turned out cold, overcast and grey. So I am really glad today is pegged as a rest day. It’s quite hard getting my head around the concept of a rest day. It supposed to be good for you, allowing the body to repair and regenerate after intense training. My head keeps telling me to go out and do some exercise when I’m supposed to be resting, so having this icy weather is helping to keep me indoors and drinking hot chocolate…..yum!

I have quite a bit of study to do, so I think the rest of this afternoon will be head down, bum up at my desk, plodding through one of the workbooks I need to finish. Also I plan to count how many days it is until the Great Event so I can keep track of it for myself and all of you as well. In effect it is 4 and a half months away! Yikes! Seems too soon…..

Yuck!

Why am I waking up every morning at 4.15am! It’s certainly playing havoc with my energy levels! Anyway the reason for the title today is because that’s how I felt when I went for my run today. I really do not like running later in the day, I am an early morning runner now. I never used to be, I used to run late afternoon/evening, but now I don’t have energy later in the day for running. Curious….

I set off after a small snack (don’t think I left enough time before heading out to digest my food) and immediately felt sluggish. Food in tummy, chilly wind blowing, early wake up and late run all added up to YUCK! I had no idea where I was going to run today, I just knew I had to do about 35 minutes and I wanted to stay in the sun. So I followed an old route I used to do that goes through a bit of “bush” behind our sub-division. Unfortunately a hilly run was not really what I was after so I battled even more. What amazed me though was that when I got back and entered my time and distance into the computer, I wasn’t really much slower than Tuesday. So there you have it, you may feel like it’s the worst run you’ve done, but actually it wasn’t so bad after all.

Half Marathon done, and the lull before the craziness!

Sorry, been absent from writing for a bit. I think after the half marathon I needed to rest everything….body, brain, diet! The race itself went okay, I did find myself feeling mildly dizzy in the second half and figured out at the end of it I must have been a bit dehydrated. Lessons learned….drink a little bit more next time. My time was better than the previous year though, so that was a positive. I did 2:01:47 so am feeling good about that.

Last week I hardly ran at all, only twice, but did 3 walks as well and then on Sunday we went for a cycle along the Hauraki Rail Trail ( http://www.haurakirailtrail.co.nz/ ) We did the Karagahake to Paeroa bit. It was peddle peddle all the way as the gradient is pretty flat. it is 14km one way so it was quite a peddle for me not being used to biking.

This week I have walked, run once taking in 2 hills and am feeling good. It feels like the half was ages ago and I am ready to kick into the next level of training for the full marathon. Slowly does it though and today is a strength training day. Have to keep that up as I go along to keep strong and flexible. I think the hardest part for me is going to be allowing myself the rest days. I know they are necessary and I have difficulty sitting still! It will be good training for my mind!

Until tomorrow…..

Two sleeps to go

Yesterday I had a terrible run. It felt like pulling teeth, which isn’t so strange as I had been to the dentist the day before. In an nutshell, I have two crowns opposite each other and because they are not natural tooth matter, the tooth next to one of the crowns was slowly getting forced away in the opposite direction. Consequently, food was getting majorly stuck inbetween the two teeth and irritating my gum. So the uncrowned tooth needed to be made bigger to fill the gap.Long story short, my teeth are now nice and close and I am sore! The dentist said it will take a few days to sort itself out. This is not the best news as I have two sleeps to go to the half marathon on Sunday!

Apart from all that, I have a sore calf/shin/knee which has been going on for a while and suddenly has decided to get worse again, as well as all sorts of aches and pains that are appearing. On top of all that, I feel sluggish and like I can’t run 21.2K. All this Geoff (my husband for those of you who don’t know) assures me is normal for me, it’s all in my head and I do this every time I am about to run a 21.2K race. This does not bode well for the full marathon later this year. Already I am second guessing my training plan. My head is struggling to come to terms with everything I need to plan – food, runs, strength training, stretching, cross training….so much information out there….

But there’s no point worrying about it this weekend as I have the race to run.