I started 2024 with a New Year’s Day parkrun. It was my 452nd parkrun (my 261st at Southampton). We didn’t have a late night last night, but we bought a new mattress in the sales and it has had the opposite effect to what I’d hoped for. Instead of improving my sleep, I’ve struggled to find a comfortable sleeping position and have slept terribly since we got it. I’m really hoping that my sleep improves this month, as that should help my running. Anyway… I love New Year’s Day parkruns – I’ve managed to complete them in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2023. The years I missed, I was in Cor ..read more

The last time I visited Penrose parkrun was New Year’s Day 2020, so it’s over 3.5 years since I last ran there. I’ve run it with my nephews, my mum and Stuart, but M has never completed the run there herself. As well as giving M a chance to increase the number of different parkrun events she’s done, I thought the drive would be easier. Heartlands is closer to my mum’s house by a couple of miles, but it’s also on the main road which is often congested with holiday traffic on Saturday mornings. We arrived 15 minutes before the start but didn’t immediately get out of the car because it was rainin ..read more

London Marathon was a month ago and since then I’ve barely run. It’s not because I haven’t wanted to, but because I’ve had to catch up with everything I postponed whilst training. The housework has been neglected and I needed to do some studying. However, the benefit of the enforced break is that my knee has had some time to recover. Yesterday I managed my first pain-free post-marathon run. Unfortunately, my right foot is now hurting. Post-marathon season’s best at Southampton parkrun (30/04/23) I wasn’t sure how my first post-marathon parkrun would go. After my first marathon in 2012, I strug ..read more

My final week of light training ahead of London Marathon has been tough. I haven’t lost as much weight as I’d hoped to and don’t feel well enough prepared. Monday night training with Lordshill Road Runners – Avenue of Pain On Monday, I went to my usual Monday night training session with Lordshill. My heart sank when I realised it would be a hill training session. Even more frustratingly, Group D (the group above mine) had a track session so several people from Group D joined Group C. I decided to do the session but I didn’t want to push too hard. I jogged up the hills and walked when I felt ti ..read more

It’s starting to get real – I’ve now received my email from London Marathon letting me know my start colour and wave – I’m in Blue 9. I’ve also got my bib number: 54632. This means that you can track me, either online or using the London Marathon 2023 app. Remember that Blue 9 is supposed to start at 10:36, so with a slightly late start and a congested first 5km, I wouldn’t expect to see anything on the tracker until ~11:15am. Stair climbing at PK Portcurno After my long run around Hayle, we had to find some other activities during our holiday as the weather forecast was dire. I did a bit of ..read more

I’ve now done my last really long run ahead of London Marathon. I’m onto the final countdown to the race with just a 16km run to go. I can’t believe I’ve got this far, but I’m frustrated that I’ve not lost weight and am not as fast as I’d like to be. LRR Monday night training session After my 20 mile run around Southampton and a busy day at work, I wasn’t feeling ready for training with Lordshill. M was at holiday club for the day. I’d walked to work and tried to keep moving throughout the day. I didn’t want to seize up, but I did want to give myself recovery time. After walking home, I had ti ..read more

Today was my first race since last summer. I was asked to arrive by 8:30am for the pacer photo, which was 90 minutes before Southampton 10k started. I also needed to fit in a 32km run according to my training plan. As a consequence, I planned to run 10km before the race, do 10km during the race, run 5km home and then go out for 7km this evening. However, things didn’t quite work out that way. 5km run to the start I woke up early, but faffed around and didn’t leave as early as I had hoped to. Being late is one of my worries, so I decided that I would just do 5km before meeting the other pacers ..read more

The last week has been really busy and I’m finding it hard to fit everything in. Work is always busy, so fitting in studying and London Marathon training around that isn’t easy. The final Sunday Runday Last Sunday was the final Sunday Runday ahead of ABP Southampton Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k. My training schedule said that I needed to run 24km, so I planned to run 8km ahead of joining the group. Unfortunately, I ran for a while before I realised that I hadn’t turned my watch on. I also dawdled a bit, so by the time I got back to the start point for Sunday Runday, I had only done 7.1km. F ..read more

This has been such a week of highs and lows. I’ve been away from home, so have missed some training sessions and haven’t eaten healthily, but I’ve also run my fastest 5k in over 3 years! Trip to Birmingham After missing my long run on Sunday, I had a busy day on Monday. I spent the morning at work and then caught a train to Birmingham to go to Digifest. For previous work trips, I’ve taken my fabulous triathlon transition bag, but this time I had some new kit. For my birthday, M and Stu bought me a beautiful green suitcase and I also got a useful new rucksack. The teal suitcase is from Tripp ..read more

After having a good time at Monday night training, I was looking forward to this week’s running. I planned to do the Thursday night endurance session, Netley Abbey parkrun and then a long run on Sunday. Lordshill Thursday night endurance session Several of the usual runners weren’t at the Thursday night session, but it was nice to chat with Elaine and others during the warm-up. I was pleased that I was not too far from my targets. I ran 10.56km and averaged 6:46/km. Other exercise On Friday, I managed to squeeze in a long walk at lunchtime with Rachel. It’s been ages since we’ve been able to h ..read more