Half Marathon Training: Week 5

I haven't done a sporty post for a while, it's because I've been pretty sporadic in my training. Some weeks I totally kill it, am motivated and all is good, some weeks I opt for the extra time in bed and sack it off completely. I've just 'finished week 5' of a training plan that culminates in my half marathon in October and actually did stick to it (there or thereabouts) the pinnacle of this week? A 10 mile run on Sunday. This is longer than I've ever ran, but I do comfortably run 8 miles in training bit I haven't been training like that for a while so my prediction is: this is gonna burn.

I wrote the above before my run, right now I am 'post' and how do I feel? Amazing. It was chucking it down with rain so I popped on a peaked cap to save my glasses and myself from total blindness, updated my running playlist with some new music and set off. I was doing a straight out and back, that's 5 miles one way - turn around and come home. I got up earlyish to force myself to eat. Usually I don't tend to eat before a run as I do it first thing in the morning. What I've learnt through this training though is that it's so much easier to eat in the evening when you've got some 'fuel' in you.

I also bought a couple of bottles of Lucozade and drank one with my breakfast (gag) and took another with me. Again usually I wouldn't bother with a drink but thought I would need it. I ran at a comfortable pace knowing I wanted to do the whole thing non stop, I would call this a 6-7 out of 10 on the effort scale. I would have been able to comfortably held a conversation should I have been running with someone else.

I reached 5 miles and felt great. The distance was a bit deceiving as the first three miles flew by, but by my judgement the 3 mile mark and 5 mile were pretty close by, they felt miles away. I didn't feel the need to stop for a big stretch half way and just wanted to carry on, so around I turned to come home. Amazing. There was also some nice hills. One on the way back was a nasty uphill, but the beauty of doing an out and back is that I knew I was going to be rewarded with a pretty nice downhills soon after.

I could have done it again. Feel great and pretty confident on my half marathon now - that is most definitely a mistake!