It’s about time I provided an update on my training. I would be lying if I said it has been plain sailing. That said I have just had a good day at the debut of The Big Half Marathon (organised by the Virgin London Marathon team). I was delighted to achieve a PB by shaving 2 minuets off my time. I even got to see Mo Farrah and the leading athletes who were running in the opposite direction to me. I had only just started – heading towards mile 1 and they were at mile 5 making it look like a walk in the park!
Leading up to today I have had to make some adjustments to my training programme. A few weeks ago during a 14 mile long run I felt pain in my left foot towards the end of the run. It was a bit of a pavement pounder as I wanted to get some road running practice. It resulted in me having to take it easy for a week by scaling back the miles and focusing on my next long run which was a 12 miler in Richmond Park on softer ground.
Just when I thought I had my running ailments back in check, I picked up full blown flu which resulted in me having to spend a whole week in bed. Not easy to do when you are used to being active. It was the first time I had flu and wipe me out is an understatement. Again I had to scale back and just focused on the 16 mile long run. I was still feeling the effects of flu and was close to giving up a number of times during the second half of that 16 miler but I dug deep and got the job done.
That was a week ago today so I was a little unsure how I would fare heading into The Big Half, however achieving the PB today has given me confidence as I head into the last six weeks of training.
A nice finish to the half marathon was bumping into the Alzheimer’s Research UK charity crew when I went to meet coach Clivey at the end of race who awarded us with some post race chocolate!
Living In The Moment With Dementia 