So week 11 – the first of the scary weeks of my marathon schedule. The 4 miles with my outrider was fun. The 8 miler was done wearing my compression socks whilst the children (allegedly) did their homework. It went well, my shins felt fine (hooray!) and some homework was even done (not by me).
Plans for the 18 miles had to be more complicated, as the children hadn’t been given that much homework to keep them out of mischief for the amount of time it would take me to run 18 miles. Final scheme involved the children going to be spoilt at their grandparents whilst I ran from their house.
This was a fine plan, except I hadn’t considered how this would confuse my subconscious. My longer runs have often gone out towards where my parents live as the half way point, and then turned back. So as I set out on my long run my subconscious was telling me I must be at least half way through, whilst my brain and Garmin were telling me I still had quite some way to go. The run was therefore hard right from the start. Reaching mile 6, which should now feel like a short run, and having to reassure myself that I’d made it through a third of my distance (woo!) was sobering.
To cut a long run (and story) short, I eventually made it back to my parents’ house, after 18.7 miles and over 3 and a half hours. My shoes and legs were filthy again (surprise surprise, the river bank was still extremely muddy) but my shins were no more sore than any other party of my body. A couple of photos I took as an excuse to stop and have a little breather.
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| At the end of the canal. An ‘Arfur Boat’ safely in a ‘dry’ lock. My kids would have loved this a few years ago! |
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| Scary bridge over the River Avon |
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| Cycle Trail signpost. ‘Only’ 5 miles back to Calne from here. Sigh. |
After such an exhausting run, I decided to swap the last 4 mile ‘easy’ run for a lovely bike ride, in the Forest of Dean, with my gorgeous family. A good change, good to spend some time as a family doing ‘stuff’, and we still got muddy. Roll on week 12 – an easier week!