Back on Track

I have finally managed to do a half marathon again. As those of you will remember who have been reading this blog for a while that I got a very nasty flu virus in mid-December and wasn't able to train for about 6 weeks.

Since the beginning of February, I have managed to build up again to a half marathon which I ran on Saturday. I set off in the car at about 05h30 to drop off some bottles of sports drink around the route and then set off about 06h30 for my run which took about 2 hours. It was, on the whole, very hard work, but I managed to run all the way except for stopping to drink. I suppose the idea from here on is to have more "run" and less "jog".

In the past, I remember also finding it difficult to adapt to drinking on the run and this run was no exception. In fact, I found it harder to drink on the run and carry a bottle from point to point than I have found it to run a half marathon without any water. Hopefully, though, I will get increasingly adept at processing lucozade (sponsors of sports nutrition at the marathon this year) on the run as I will need something to keep me going when I do a full marathon.

For those of you who are runners, you will be able to commiserate with me over sore legs that make going down stairs agonising, but having rested yesterday and exercised again this morning, that has thankfully eased off.

The weeks are ticking by now and it is just less than 8 weeks to go, so I will need to continue to build my weekly long runs for another 5 weeks and then ease back a bit for the last 3 weeks.

It is all rather hard work, but for an excellent cause, so if you still haven't added your sponsorship, please do.

Peter Lindop, 02/03/2009