15km - My Furthest Yet

Hi everyone,

So it is Sunday evening and the end of week 11.  Since my last post I managed 6.73km on my short run and 15km today on my LSR, in total 28k all week.  So although I am not quite where I should be, I am happy with my progress after being ill.




As always my long run consisted of sets of run with recovery walk, this week it was 4 sets of 25 minutes run and 5 minutes recovery walk.  Normally I run up the river and back again but am getting quite board of this route, I also feel that knowing the route so well has impact on my mental state in that I am finding I am getting (mentally feeling) tired earlier and earlier because I know what the distance/time is likely to be without even looking at my watch.

So today I ran the same direction but along the road route on the way out and the river route home.  It was a tougher route as the river is pretty much flat all the way, today I had quite a steady incline for best part of my first running set, and as sods law would have it, what goes up must come down, and the second I started the decline my watched buzzed me to do recovery walk, and I ended up walking all the way down the hill!

Before I had set off I had checked google maps to check I could get across from the road back to the river the way I wanted to go, it looked like it could but I wasn't 100%, so as I turned off the road down a very muddy track, I wasn't sure where I would end up, luckily I came face to face with the train tracks and knew if I could get over them I would be back on the river.  So mid run I found myself hoisting my legs over a stile and making a dash for it over the tracks  (not a pretty sight for anyone to see!), I had only just hoisted myself over the second stile as I heard the train!

Sure enough my (usually rubbish) sense of direction was correct and I was back on the river.  I carried on up river until I had finished the second set of run/recovery and then headed back down the river home.

I did manage the whole plan, but found the second half of the run much harder than the first.  The final set was really hard, my breathing was fine, and although my legs felt heavy they didn't really hurt, but I just didn't have the energy.

I used my mantra not to quit and was proud that I didn't.

Today I went out in top to toe ASICS (bar running bra as I don't have an ASICS one.... hint hint). Now I know that I am sponsored by them, but I am always honest in my blog and I will be honest today about each item....

Running shoes & Long Sleeve Liteshow top I have already reviewed.

Socks - Ankle, technical running, extremely comfortable and are always dry when I get home, even when I have jumped in puddles.

Tights -  Very stylish, comfortable and light to wear, again dry on returning home.

Vest - Now I was a bit concerned about trying this out for the first time on a LSR as I do sweat a lot, I get very hot and prefer just to wear a top, so to wear this on top of my long sleeve was worrying.  But I couldn't have been more wrong, it was very windy and it really broke that from my body, but it didn't make me too hot, and it had fantastic pockets which I could fit my phone in and my GELS so I didn't need to wear my belt.

(All reviews have links to sellers website on my reviews page.)

All in all I love every item, I sort of wanted to find a negative just so that you would know I am telling the truth about the rest of the things, but I cant!  ASICS clothes are fantastic for running in, even if you are the larger sweaty FBB like I am, and I have to also say very slimming, I have had many compliments on how much weight I have lost in the last two weeks wearing my new clothes, but actually I hadn't lost anything as wasn't training when I was ill, so it is the clothes.  I kind of think they could market them 'clothes that make you look slim whilst you are getting slim' LOL.

I have been thinking a lot this week about diet, (or lack of which has been my case) obviously I want to lose weight or body fat, but I need to make sure I am eating sufficient for the training I am doing.  I can see lots of plans for people who just need to keep up their nutrition whilst training, and I can see a lot of articles about how you are less likely to lose weight when training because of carb loading and so on.  However I am a good 3 stone over weight and I know that losing this will indeed help my running, so how do I do it?  If anyone out there reading this knows of any good articles then please message me and let me know.

FBB xx