Sunday 21 March 2010

Greater distance, and this time greater confidence

The last couple of weeks have been really busy.

Along with the running, other challenges have been cropping up along the way. I gave my first lecture this week which ironically was on stress in sport. Hopefully the students got something out of it. It was certainly another good step on the academic career, and after some initial nerves at the start I really enjoyed the experience. Big thanks to Tom as he took the first half.

Anyway onto the running. Last week involved threshold running, a couple of 30-40 Min's runs and a 60min run on the Sunday. Fairly easy all round. This week has been tougher. After the lecture on Tue, I headed out in York and along the river ran 5.55miles in 44 Min's. Thursday I set out just as it was getting dark. After a slowish start, when I got to the canal I realised that the night was closing in pretty quickly, so I upped my pace and beat my 5k time by a min or so. This now stands at 23 Min's 32 secs. Yesterday's weather was awful so I headed to the gym for an easy 30min run and a workout.

Today was the big one. Just over 14 miles in 1hr 55 Min's. I ran the half quicker than two weeks ago in 1hr 47 Min's. Along the way I also beat my time for the 10k, now 51min 25 secs. This was also a tougher route than last time because I ran up the hill into Headingley which was a killer. The most encouraging thing was that although I was completely knackered at the end, I think I could have kept going for another mile or two at least. So where as last time I ran over 13 I was feeling more apprehensive about the marathon, this Sunday has boosted my confidence.

Here's to more nice weather and brighter evenings for running when the clocks go forward.

Gareth

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