Going in the right direction.

Tomorrow (Sunday) represents 10 weeks to go until the Sunderland Marathon.  Good then that I seem to have put all injury niggles from my ankle injury behind me and have put in a very solid and satisfying 75 mile week.   The long runs continue to be my focus and have managed a solid 21 miler last Sunday, a midweek 13 and a long one today of 20 miles.  I opted for my long run today purely for ease of getting it out of the way and will go easy tomorrow as a result.   My aim was a 20 mile with a focus on a slightly quicker pace than previous long runs with the obligatory negative split thrown in.
Managed the 20 with an average pace of 6.29 per mile and a negative split with the first 10 in 65.19 and the second 10 in 64-21.  

I tried out my new hydration pack/bum bag device today with mixed results....great to have energy/water available and went through two small bottles of liquid - much easier to use this than previous weeks where I have had a re-used orange juice pouch (Capri Sun to be precise but other varieties are of course available).   It also felt relatively comfortable and didn't annoy me half as much as I expected it to.  

On the downside I opted for music on the run which I dont often resort to....Set up my ipod with a variety of tunes on a playlist.  Unfortunately I must have repeated various tunes a number of times with the Bruno Mars song "Talking to the Moon" appearing at least five times on the playlist throughout the run....I did however make the same mistake with a classic Bob Dylan number called "Shelter from the Storm" from a version made for the charity album "Japan".    Listening to this song a number of times made me wonder what the guy was on when he wrote this....definitely more than Lucozade Sport I bet!

Well, the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much, it’s doom alone that counts
And the one-eyed undertaker, he blows a futile horn
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

Imagine how much that makes you wonder about life 19 miles into a long run! 

Think I will stick to my own company on my long runs in future.

Seems like long runs are going to remain a feature of my running this year as I have entered an October Marathon in the picturesque city of Chester.    As a resident of Chester for a number of years I know the route pretty well and know it is always a great place to go for a weekend.  The Marathon has established itself as a great race and it expected to get in the region of 5000 entries.  



Entries are still open and can be accessed at... http://www.activeleisureevents.co.uk/full-marathon.aspx



It also has the added bonus of crossing the Welsh Border - Croeso i Cymru as they say!


Happy running all !