I’m up to week 5 already! This time last year I’d done my longest ever training run of 10 miles and I felt great! Fast forward a year and I’m nowhere near running 10 miles and my half marathon is just over 6 weeks away (insert tears to blog post). But I have had a great week in running this week and I’m feeling much more optimistic for my half marathon! Hooray!!
Monday | Week 5 | New Trail Shoe Run 5k
I was super excited to come home to my new trail shoes! I opened the box, took a ton of photos of them and then literally shoved my feet into them. They didn’t feel comfortable like previous running shoes have but they were just a little tight across the laces. I loosened them up and they felt much better.
I did a little bit of running on the spot and lunges and they felt ok so I took them out for a short 5k run. To start with, they felt absolutely fine and I thought ‘hooray I’ve found my best running shoes’ but after about 2 miles I was suffering. Badly. My toes went completely numb and I mean can’t-feel-a-thing kind of numb. Now, I know that I’m supposed to wear running shoes a size bigger than my normal shoe size… but my last Brooks pair are 5s and I’ve suffered terribly with blisters on my heels and pain down my legs. So sensible me (!!?) decided I’d order these new trail shoes at my actual size 4 as clearly 5s are just too big for me… logic right…. WRONG!
I have never been in this much pain from trainers before and somehow I managed to smash my fastest 5k of 2018, most likely because I couldn’t wait to tear them off of my feet and put my toes on the cold grass!!
So now, I’m stuck with 3 pairs of running shoes (one of which I was professionally fitted for) that are agony to run in…. which leaves me with NO running shoes to wear! Excuse me while I go an sulk in the corner.
Please can someone tell me that I can stretch these out and that I’ll actually be able to run in them??
Tuesday | Week 5 | Rest Day
My poor toes… they’re still really sore from my run yesterday and I’m starting to think that perhaps I’ll never be able to wear them and I most likely will have to sell them, which is devastating because I love them! I’m not sure whether I’ve done the sensible thing here but I went online and found some really cheap Asics… I mean half price kinda deal. I ordered the Asics Endurant Grey/Coral (in a 4.5) and the Asics Patriot 8 Black/Pink (size 5) because I just can’t afford to waste any more money on a pair of running shoes that don’t fit me or are too uncomfortable to wear. Let’s see how we go with these
Wednesday | Week 5 | 2 Mile Hard Run
After Monday’s terrible run I felt like I needed to redeem myself and get out there again. I put on my really old trusty orange Nikes and pushed myself like I haven’t for months. I originally set my paces for around 9:15 – 9:30 but I felt so good I pushed myself to go faster and did an average of 8:56. I felt like I was finally getting back on track! Although I’m nowhere near as far in my training as I’d like to be, I’m running (fairly) injury free and am liking that I can get out and do even shorter runs, even if I’m a little disappointed that I’ve lost so much fitness from last year.
Thursday | Week 5 | Rest Day
Another rest day for me today and I had to take Pupper to the vet again for a check up. Unfortunately she hasn’t improved since going onto her antibiotics so she’s having to have steroids to try and get rid of her skin infection. This also means that she’s going to be going to the loo a lot more frequently so I’ll have to try and manage that.
I got my new running shoe delivery today and I love both of them! I can’t wait to try them out.
Friday | Week 5 | 7 Mile Long Run
I was not in a good mood today, I was angry, sad and anxious for no real reason and I procrastinated this run for over an hour. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of trying on my new shoes!!! I picked my Asics Endurants and set out of the door, my only plan being to do a reallllllyyyyy slooowwwwwww long-ish run.
I felt absolutely great and like I could take on the whole world, which is probably why even though I was trying to run slow, I managed a 1:03 10k time! I was a little annoyed that today was my slow run and I had to try really hard to keep my pace low. I tried not to look at my mileage on my Garmin and was only interested in my heart race zone and kept it around the aerobic area as much as possible so imagine my surprise when I’d got up to nearly 7 miles. I did a really long cool down and tried to stretch out my foot as much as possible as it’s been feeling really good and I didn’t want to ruin it. I will say though, I was wearing a t-shit and it was FREEZING! I felt pretty warm while running but my arms were like ice blocks and I had real trouble warming up when I got home.
I’m feeling a lot more confident about my half marathon which is in around 6 weeks and I’m not far off of my 10 mile goal for training.
Saturday | Week 5 | Rest Day
Another rest day for me in preparation for my race tomorrow. I’m a little apprehensive about the race as it’s cross country and I’m really not good at cross country, I don’t really know why I sign up for these kinds of races! I’ll never learn my lesson!
I finally took my running shoes out of the back of the car that have been in a plastic bag since the Bath Skyline 2 weeks ago (why am I like this….??). They were still muddy and a little wet so I had to try and dry them out.
Sunday | Week 5 | Race Day 10k Slay The Dragon
It’s race day again, hooray! I’m driving to this race, with my muddy running shoes in tow, wondering how on earth I’m going to run this course. Although I am telling myself I’m not going to fall over, I’m not convinced!
We got there super early and managed to park on the field where the race started which was nice as we got to stay in the car for as long as possible (-2 degrees thanks to the cold snap from Russia they’re calling the ‘beast from the East’). It was a lovely sunny day though which made it not quite as bad, although I did wear a long sleeved top and ear warmers for the first time ever because y’know, sinuses.
The race started around the Village Hall field (by a town crier’s bell) and the second I started to run, I felt like my whole body was lead, which is never a good start. I turned my watch off of mileage and onto ‘effort’ so I didn’t have to look at the miles so by when I was clearly going to struggle. The ground was absolutely frozen which made running across the churned up mud very difficult to run across and my ankle went over so many times I was really worried about giving myself an injury and putting myself out of action! I honestly don’t know how people were managing to sprint across it, I really struggled and it’s not my first cross country race (any tips greatly appreciated here).
The race was across beautiful countryside and there’s lots of lovely little styles to climb over and there were cows, sheep, farms, farm smells and all of the marshals were really friendly and encouraging. There was one section in particular which was a real bottle neck going over a style and it took around 3 minutes of hanging around before it was finally my turn so definitely no PBs for moi.
The course was also fairly hilly but it was mostly quiet roads and I never really mind hills much. There were a couple of photographers for the race and usually I find I either don’t see them at all or they’re hiding out of sight but at this race they were really lovely and telling everyone to smile which was nice as I got to have a couple of photos of me actually smiling! #It’sAMiracle
The medal was cute and had a little purple dragon on it and I also treated myself to a piece of free cake at the finish line and a bacon butty afterwards.
Even though my time wasn’t my fastest and I didn’t enjoy the experience of the race much it was enjoyable and if I was a better runner I’d probably have loved it.
Next Week’s Plan: – I’m going to up my mileage on the runs a bit more (injuries permitting) and incorporate more stretching and cross training.
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