Wilmslow Half

A pleasing race at the Wilmslow Half on Sunday which was also the England Half Marathon Championships. Quite tired legs from a week of training in a very windy and hilly but hot Fuerteventura and only 5 hours sleep due to late return flight.

I started off too fast - I didn't realise it at the time as it felt quite comfortable. The girl who went on to win was about 30m ahead of me until 12k when I hit a bit of a bad spot. Unfortunately 2 girls went past me in the last 5k. Tired legs and starting too fast had really caught up with me by then. A pb of 78.31 (knocking over 2 mins off my current pb) and 4th place - can't complain. Looked at my results later in the day and they had the 10k split which was actually 5s faster than my current 10k pb. Oops!

A good race and great weather too. Will hopefully come back to this one next year.

Less than 4 weeks now until London. Everything is just right so hoping no last minute injuries or illnesses come my way!

7 weeks to go until London marathon and I'm currently in the most intense block of training I have ever done. Everything is on track and going better than I could have thought. My long steady runs are now 10s per km quicker than they were in the build up to the La Rochelle Marathon in November at the same average heart rate and my effort sessions are longer and faster than ever. Fingers crossed I stay injury free as right now I'm really excited about what London has to offer!

There have been days where tiredness has crept up - yesterday I felt really tired before going out for an easy run but once I got going I felt good. Came back and did my circuit training wondering if I could get through it and maybe the wise thing would be to knock it on the head but suddenly got a second wind and felt good. Bed at 9.15pm (how sad is that?) then up this morning feeling refreshed and bouncy on my long run.

Haven't seen any sheep being walked on a lead on the Wirral Way lately - most disappointed!!