Today was the Hampton Court Palace 10k, and decision day for the 2023 Surrey Half Marathon. So how did it go?
To be honest, I wasn't feeling particularly optimistic before the race. Although I've lost over 3kg since my last blog (which means my jeans keep falling down!) I have had a cold for the past week and have been getting out of breath walking up the stairs, so not a promising start! Also, my left knee has been grumbling since I foolishly ran up some hills in the Lake District last weekend. I definitely need to work on my mobility and start taking my stretching seriously if I'm going to up my mileage.
Although I suppose the benefit of having a cold is that I have had a few rest days so my legs were at least fresh. I was Run Director at Guildford parkrun yesterday so hadn't even done a parkrun, so as long as my lungs and my energy held out, my legs should be fine.
One question concerned me this morning, road or trail shoes? A no brainer you might say, have you seen the rain we have been having? But I hate running in trail shoes and love running in light and bouncy road shoes so road shoes it was.
If you haven't done the Hampton Court Palace 10k, I highly recommend it. You start in front of the iconic Anne Boleyn gateway, with Henry VIII himself starting the race. It is a one lap course, the first half goes along the river and the second half through Home Park so it is a pretty and varied route. And, best of all, it is mostly flat! Oh, and the medals are awesome!
As usual, I started with one goal, don't walk. And actually, it turned out that wasn't too hard a goal to achieve! I actually didn't want to walk! I wanted it to end, of course, I haven't transformed into some kind of elite athlete! But walking didn't cross my mind! So this must be progress! Even when, at around 8k, I started to question my shoe choice, when the course got very wet, muddy and slippery and most people chose to walk in the hope of staying upright. So I would have had every excuse to walk, but I still didn't!
I said in my last blog that I would enter the Surrey Half Marathon if I felt that I could keep going at the end of the 10k, and I did! Not for another 7 miles of course, possibly not for more than another kilometre, but I could have kept going for a little while. Probably helped by having to run kilometre 8 quite slowly due to my desire not to go splat into the mud, but it still counts.
So I have been looking up half marathon training plans. The Surrey Half is in 16 weeks and most 10k to half marathon training plans take 12 weeks so it appears it is quite doable.
I mentioned to my osteopath that I was thinking of doing a half marathon and he was completely in favour of it - I guess he'd like more of those foreign holidays!
However, I have not yet found an online training plan that incorporates parkrun so I have decided to make one up! Something along the lines of:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: cross training
Wednesday: intervals or easy run
Thursday: cross training
Friday rest
Saturday: parkrun
Sunday: long run
I might refine it but I think it is a reasonable starting point. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome!
In addition to the above, I will incorporate mobility exercises, stretching, and use the massage gun that I bought a few months ago and is gathering dust on the shelf.
And of course, I will continue to work on losing weight. But not today, today is a day for post run wine and pizza. Yum! 🥂🍕😋
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