Half Marathon training & getting a cold don't mix!

Hello!

Welcome back!

This Weeks Training update...

Quite a bit has happened over the last week, a friend of mine gave birth 6 weeks early to a gorgeous little girl and I've not been able to visit due to being loaded with a cold!!

Needless to say my training has slowed down somewhat too!

So last week I wrote that I'd had my best ever pace for a 5k, I was so pleased and confident that I could get my miles up that weekend to 8 on that Friday. On Thursday I started to feel that dreaded scratch in my throat, it wasn't looking good.

On Friday, I came home from work and all I wanted to do was sleep, I even thought at the time that if i could just do some running then it would be ok. It was not meant to be; I lay down on the sofa and slept.

Saturday was none eventful too, I stayed on the sofa all day, the only movement I made was to walk the dog and even then I took the throwing ball for her and she did all the work!

I was feeling gutted, my 8 miler was out the window. I felt weak; I couldn't breath; I wasn't sleeping... I could almost see my average pace drift away from me.

Monday I felt slightly better so I went to SweatShop club that evening; I probably shouldn't have done, but once I'd done it I did feel better. It was short and slow but at least I did it.

Short and slow with the SRC

I ventured out on Wednesday for a bit of a longer run; definitely a bad idea, I should have just done a 5k. It was quite possibly the worst run ever. Slow, hilly... I despise hills!!! I had a stitch for pretty much 75% of it!

Wednesday nights awful run!

Last night however I forced myself out on a later run; it was totally worth it... I actually enjoyed it!! the first mile was slow and up hill but after that I got into my stride. I felt strong, I didn't get a stitch and ran for the majority of the entire thing! I was focused on the end goal... to get back to my average pace.

Saturday night run!

For the Great North Run this year I'm aiming to keep to a 14 min mile to get my desired time of between 3 hrs to 3 hrs 15 mins. The way training has gone so far I should be able to do that; I just need to try harder on my longer runs, make the most of downhill and declines and focus on keeping the walking pace up to a fast march on those up hills. I really feel that I'm better prepared for it this year, so I'm  quite confident I'll beat last years time at least.

My charity

This year I'm running to raise money for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, they are absolutely amazing animals who not only alert their owners to possible dangers and general household sounds and alerts; they keep them company too.

"Hearing Dogs for Deaf People is a national charity and centre of excellence in training dogs to alert deaf people to important sounds and danger signals in the home, work place and public buildings." hearingdogs.org.uk

Please support in any way you can - my link to sponsor me will be at the bottom of the page.

In other news....

So, two weeks ago the Bupa Great North Run Facebook page has been running a competition to take a 'selfie' in front of the bridge and uploading with #bridgeselfie and #GNRMillion - of course I have been doing this as I do a selfie after every run anyway! 

I found out after arriving home from work on Monday that I was the first winner of the trainers! I was over the moon!! 

The moment I found out I was a winner

I have now received them and they're great! I'll not be able to run in them unfortunately as my gait analysis recommended that I get stability trainers and these are neutral. I will however wear them all the time I'm not running which will save my Brookes Vapors for all my runs.

The winning Puma Faas trainers

Coming up...

So this week the plan of action...

5k Monday evening
8 mile on Wednesday afternoon
5k on Friday evening

Stay tuned to see how they go!


If you want to sponsor me you can do here:

See you next time,

Chrissy