With a week to go until the Belfast Half Marathon I decided I’d better get my arse in gear and actually go for a run longer than 10k.
I haven’t gone futher than 6.2 miles since London, and whilst I know I can handle a half I also mustn’t be complacent and at least attempt to get a decent distance in my legs beforehand – hence tonight’s 7.5 miles.
I was going to go further than that but I wanted to be home by 9pm otherwise I may forget about sleep tonight (legs y’see!) plus it’d be perhaps foolish to go overboard, not straightaway anyway … maybe I’ll push it a little further later in the week.
As with some of my recent training runs tonight was designed to be slow. It was more a case of getting the miles in my legs and the time on my feet. From that point of view it was a success.
I started off as usual going along the dual carriageway, then the outskirts of the industrial estate before heading into the town centre, going as far as The Showgrounds, down Parkway, Cullybackey Road, up Princes Street and then out the Galgorm Road to Cambridge House school and turning for home ….. a lot of it flat but not without it’s little inclines either and, of course, Princes Street which, I’m happy to say, I tackled successfully … although I wasn’t foolhardy enough to sprint it this time!
All in all, I was pretty pleased with how it went. My legs didn’t really object and I kept a fair bit in reserve during the early stages, even if the first 5k was faster than last night. Interestingly, my last four km splits were all progressively quicker than the one before and I did feel I was getting stronger.
I also set myself little targets throughout. For example, run for three minutes and then walk for 30 seconds and so … and I managed every one. In fact, sometimes I didn’t bother adhering to the target and just kept going because I felt comfortable doing so.
Even though I’m still well short of half marathon distance tonight’s run has given me the confidence to believe that I’ll manage ok next Sunday. I’m hoping to go further during the week (although no later than Thursday) maybe pushing it to ten miles. I certainly felt like that tonight, and would have done if I hadn’t have left it so late to start.
Oh, and it was wet and dark tonight. My favourite running conditions, I’m a happy boy!
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 