Confusing My Distances

Hello everyone.

Sorry I missed blogging last week.  I'm not going to lie, I just didn't want to write!  I had a really busy week at work, where lots of things got on top of me.  I was exhausted by the time I got home every day and couldn't be bothered to train (Sorry Richard), I ate lots of rubbish, and drank lots of wine....


But its life, and that is how things go.  I am not going to beat myself up over it, and if it happens to you then neither should you!

What I did manage last week was 13 miles in my LSR on Sunday.  Now I am going to admit something here that is very embarrassing... in fact so embarrassing that I have to now appologise to everyone who has frustrated me when they ask 'and how far is that marathon?'

I know that half a marathon is 13.1 miles and that a full marathon is 26.2 miles, BUT I thought that it was 21km and 42km respectively.... This is how it played out.....

So I decided that I would run 3 sets of 50 minutes with 5 minute recovery, listening to the UnMumsyMum audio book.  I find it better to listen to than music as it helps keep my steady pace, and my mind off of what I am actually doing.

The first set went well, as did the second set.  On the third set I managed 20 minutes, and then my legs decided they had just about had enough and did not want to carry this fatty boom boom any more.  I decided that after the rubbish week I had it wasn't surprising and just decided to walk the rest of the session running if and when I could.

When I was 2km from home I called my fiance and asked him to come and meet me, I was struggling and wanted something to help me finish my first half marathon distance.

He met me at just under 0.5k to go and gave me the boost I needed to make a run for it, I was at 3 hours and wanted to complete it under 3:01:00.  I said to him come on, help me sprint for it, I am almost at 21k and want to complete my half marathon distance, I was counting down the meters and screamed yes 21K at the top of my voice as I stopped my watch and then walked the 100 meters or so home.

I got in the bath so pleased that I had covered the distance even if I had to walk the best part of the last 20 minutes or so.

So I was quite surprised when my Strava didn't ping a half marathon medal at me.  I noted my disappointment to my extremely supportive fiance who casually told me.... 'well thats because you were 100 meters short'

I almost choked on my High 5 recovery shake!  I mean, I felt an idiot that I was sure it was 21km dead but he knew what I was doing and could have told me this snippet of information whilst I was still running so I could have completed the extra 100 meters!

So that was that.

This week, my legs have been quite sore which has me worried as I am running Silverstone Half Marathon this Sunday.  I didn't do very well with my intervals on Tuesday, but I did get up early and did a 30 minute easy run this morning.

So that is about it,  I will write again after (hopefully) completing my first ever half marathon on Sunday, with a time of 3:01:00 to beat (kind of).

FBB xx

PS. whilst just getting the Strava link I was reminded that I got a PR for 10 miles, 10K and 15k so I guess it couldn't have been all that bad.