Bank Holiday Monday and Week 3 Marathon Training commences ...

of Marathon Training commences!

Yesterday was Bank Holiday Monday and a glorious sunny day!  Well maybe that is stretching the truth ever so slightly.  It was lovely and sunny in the late afternoon and evening but started off very chilly! Rather than run I walked - and conquered 3 Wainwright fells in the process. When we set off from the car at around 11am it was very cold and felt like it could rain. We were very lucky though and the sun eventually managed to break through the clouds and warm my weary bones! I must have slept funny on Sunday night as I had a really sore stiff shoulder and arm, which got worse as I walked rather than better, so a little bit of heat on it felt good! 

Fell 1: Great Mell Fell

Fell 2: Little Mell Fell

Fell 3: Gowbarrow Fell

We walked 8.79 miles very hilly miles in total!  After wasting Sunday suffering with a severe hangover I felt like I had accomplished something.  I was going to go for a run when I got home but my shoulder was sore, the sun was shining, the garden chairs were out and an ice cold Cider was calling me! Any thoughts of a run were soon abandoned!

This morning when I woke up my shoulder was slightly stiff but got better as the day went on!  

For my birthday I got some Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans which are apparently a good source of energy whilst doing long training runs.  I have never tasted one before and was unsure if I would like them but I decided to brave one tonight before I left for my run (just in case I needed to spit it out and wash it down!) but I was very pleasantly surprised!  They are rather delicious and I am sure I will manage to overdose on caffeine whilst running now! I will have to monitor my intake carefully!  I'm not sure how beneficial they are compared with an energy gel but they are much tastier!!

The sun has been hot all day today and I left it a little later in the afternoon to do my run, in the hope it would be a little cooler.

It didn't cool down much!

I was supposed to be running Kendal 10K race tomorrow evening but my Swimming analysis session has been changed to tomorrow so I am now unable to run it!  However, not to be defeated I decided to run the route tonight on my own! It was a fairly hilly route and with the wind and the heat I felt like I was running in a tumble drier! I tried to push the pace as if I was in a race but without competition its difficult.  However I was fairly pleased with my time of 57:25 with an average pace of 9.14 minute miles. You can see my run here. I'm never going to recreate a race atmosphere but it gave me a flavour of what I will be missing! I will be interested to see the results tomorrow evening!

So ... tomorrow evening I have my swimming analysis session. I'm not sure whether I feel excitement or trepidation! At last someone will be able to tell me where I am going wrong (and hopefully how to put it right!) but I hope they don't pick my stroke to bits too much!  I have very little swimming confidence as it is!

I will let you know how it goes ....