I've never done a trail race before so there were so many unknowns coming into this. If I ever do a 10km run slower than 50 mins then there must be some extenuating circumstances. Like mountainous or something. So to be walking to the start area, chatting with someone who's done this event previously, and …
14 Feb – A different kind of challenge
This one's a big one. As a "Head of House" at school (I'm a teacher, not a pupil), part of my remit is to coordinate our house's charitable activities. We've gone all out this year and the students have been amazing at coming up with awesome ideas to raise money for the Southampton Hospital Neonatal …
9 Feb – Longest yet
I love it when a plan includes new challenges. I'm always running a half marathon on Saturdays, whether training for an event or not, it's just a thing I do. But the training plan goes well beyond 13.1 miles for the long run! Today was 14 miles. It's not much more, but it requires a …
7 Feb – Tempo
Another crack at the 5 mile run, with 7:30 per mile being the target. And another successful "better than target" run! I did go pretty hard and managed to sustain it long enough to get a 7:10 per mile average for the run. Super happy with that! A friend challenged me to go for 7:00 …
4 Feb – Sprints!
10 lots of 400m at 6 minutes per mile was the plan. So out I went for a warm up jog to the clear, quiet, flat road that I like to use for repeats. The road is about a mile away which is perfect for a warm up. The aim was for 6 minutes/mile but …
2 Feb – Abort!
I got up. Ready to run. But the conditions outside are terrible for running in! I can handle cold, wet, and windy, but the snow has partially melted and then refrozen to an ice rink! Discretion is the better part of Valor so I'm calling off this weekend's half marathon. My first failure this year. …
1 Feb – Footprints
Snow! Yay! It is safest to run when the snow is fresh and crunchy, so out I went to make some footprints. It was only a very slow 3.5 mile run, but well worth doing.
31 Jan – Rounding off the month
It has been a hard week to stay on track with the weight loss whilst maintaining the effort to train. I failed to complete the Wednesday morning garage session and this morning was meant to be a hard and fast 3 miler at 7min per mile. Instead I decided to brave the cold and get …
28 Jan – Not as planned
The plan said 3 X 1 mile repeats at 7:20 per mile, which shouldn't have been a problem as I can do those back to back without stopping. My issue was my ankle. I had to stop running last year because I developed a stress fracture in my left leg and it was feeling a …
26 Jan – Saturday Halfie with a difference
Sure, it was 13.1 miles, but not as we know it. Jules and I had a rare weekend away and so she joined me for the first 4.5 miles of this, which was very slippy coastal paths and hills... Lots of hills. After dropping Jules off at the place we are staying, I went off …
Pete Bond's London Marathon Adventure for XLP 