I suppose the length of time since my last post gives away how disastrous my half-marathon attempt was! In spite of another rest day on the Saturday, I simply ran out of gas – very early! The first 6km felt good, and I was on track to make my goal of 2hr:20min. By 7km I was starting to realise just how far I still had to go, and by 8km my legs felt like jelly…. I managed to keep running until the 10km mark, and my time was still on track at that stage, but I felt pretty bad. I took 1 minute walk breaks from then on, at first every 15 minutes or so, but by the last km, I think it was almost more walking than running. Only pride kept me running when I got to the park and the crowds of people! My time of 2:33 was faster than the Petone run in September – but that’s not much consolation, especially as the conditions this run were perfect.
So it’s back to the drawing board. My training had gone pretty well, and I’d done several long runs in the preceding month. I do wonder whether the extra gym work I’m doing is too much? I don’t think I’ll renew Express Fit in July, and just stick to some core work. I know I need to look at nutrition as well – I think I’m careless at times about what I eat, and I need to smarten up.
Last week I had a couple of very short runs and 4 sessions at the gym. This week has been much the same, although on the treadmill I got bored and added some ‘hills’ on Tuesday and 5x400m at faster than 5k race pace today. And it felt good!