Sore knee and hips

Thought about going for a long run tonight but my right knee felt sore and my left hip felt funny, so only ran about 5.5miles - took 50 minutes. Went into town by the river and then back out through town and Ditherington and back home. It was quite cold so I'm glad I layered up, but I think I need to prepare a bit better and I really do need to do another long run soon.

Regular run

I have been running more than I've been blogging, but I had bad guts (sorry but true) for a week and so had a week free of running. Eased back into on Saturday with a 3 mile-ish run and today with a just shy of 7 miles. Took me a little over an hour which is good because it felt like someone had replaced my trainers with lead shoes.

IF, and it is still a big if, I can keep that pace up I'm on for a sub 4 hour run, but there's a long way to go. It's just silly.

Longest run

So tonight was my longest run so far, just under 10 miles and completed in 1 hour 29 minutes 18 sec. Which is about 6 miles and hour and would see me complete a marathon in around 4 hours which remains the target time. I'm pretty sure I could run faster if I wasn't running alone. But it's not just time, I have to be able to run for another 2 and half hours and that could do my head in!!

Club Time Trial

Once again I've been running more often than I've been blogging. Wednesday night we had a time trial and I picked a quicker guy to try and keep up with and I'm pleased with the improvement I've put in. Running on my own is good for miles in my legs and time on the street but running with others makes me run faster.

Just over 3 miles in 23 minutes, so 7 minute miles and 8mph - Right now it's unlikely I could keep that up for 26 miles but progress is progress.

Christmas Club Run

So it was the Christmas club run and about 20 of us headed to Llangollen in Wales. It was the longest and the hardest run for me so far, two and a quarter hours and just under 12 miles over hills and fells and down a great escarpment. Beautiful scenery. The run was followed by the worst shower of the year in some of the worst showers in Wales. Truly terrible - dirty, dribble of water that never warmed up. Lunch later was good in The Bull Inn - very hungry.

I'd map it but I've no idea where we went really.

Boxing Day run: Oxford

So I ran this route again, this time with my brother-in-law Ben. Apparently we did it in 36 minutes which was a whole 9 minutes quicker than 2 1/2 months ago. So training is having some impact, which is a relief.

Running is great

So last night was the club run and I ran the frustrating route. There must be something about being chased because I finished nearly 4 MINUTES quicker which is a massive improvement. 25min 47 seconds down from 29min 36 seconds. So 7 minute miles which is not bad. So, I clearly wasn't pushing myself hard enough running on my own.

Had some good advice on marathon training afterwards, which was helpful.

Oh and today my knees are sore.