Keep on Training!

There were no noteworthy running encounters last week, no colourful characters from Rocky’s Philadelphia or nose-in-the-air runners, only September’s glorious moon for company during the past few sessions.

I am having to adapt my training (the long runs in particular) these days, as it seems we’ll be busy all weekends in September, doing one thing or another. This usually means seeing friends on the weekend, eating and drinking far too much, then leaving the long run for Monday night and distributing all other sessions through the week as life permits… I’m still on top of it though and I’ve not – yet – missed anything more crucial than the odd easy run in a week, but I know it is going to be a struggle fitting everything in over the next few weeks.

Generally speaking, I’m encouraged with how my training is going: the interval and – especially – the tempo sessions are hard but I see them through at the pace my plan requires, and I have been completing all long runs as prescribed (with aches and pains that usually come with upping the distance again, but nothing that lingers after a day or so). Now, for serious runners, following a training plan to the letter is taken for granted, but my approach has tended to be just muddling through, ticking off as many sessions as I manage to and hoping for the best! I’ve tried to do better this time round, and I think to a great extent I’ve succeeded – so far!

Had I more time, I’d like to be able to fit in more strength training (I know this would make the long runs less painful) and I miss my easy runs on the weeks (like last one) when I can’t fit them in. I enjoy these immensely, just making the route up as I go along at an easy pace and reminding myself that running is not always about reaching your physical limit…

In the mean time the weeks pass, and here we are with less than two months to go… That thought makes me feel very unready! Still, with 6 more long runs to go before tapering (inc yesterday’s which I’ve deferred to today), there is plenty of time to build the distance, although I’ve no idea how I’ll maintain my target race pace on the day!

Still, that’s not for now. Now I just need to stick with the plan through another busy period, see if I can add some strength training back in my routine and try to fit more miles in the week!