Wednesday, 10th March – 46 days to go

Today is the long run - 2hrs 50mins with 60mins easy, 90mins steady and 20 minutes near marathon pace. At least that’s the aim. I still haven’t found a satisfactory way to carry drinks around with me on these long runs. If I carry a drink it always finds it’s way into my right hand and after a while I get a stiff shoulder. Also I can’t use my arms properly in my running style so they end up just stuck in the same position. Today I’m using a holster type thing which is reasonably comfortable for walking, but hasn’t been brilliant when I’ve used it for running in the past. It feels like I’m pulling a sledge behind me as I set off down the road towards Otley.

It’s another sunny day – maybe Spring has arrived. The first mile is a bit of a drag as I’m aware of the little niggles and aches, but this soon wears off and I make good time going downhill and into Otley. Not quite so easy when I turn round and come back up the hill, but by the time I go past my house I’ve done the first seven miles in 57 minutes, which is a touch quicker than I intended.

I try to up the pace into Leeds and although I’m a little quicker for the first couple of miles I can’t sustain it. Coming back up the hill out of Leeds is awful; I slow down to a crawl and can’t seem to find any pace or energy. I’ve chomped an energy bar and an energy gel along the way, but I’m completely lacking the ability to pick up the pace. Drop the holster thing in the front garden and run half a mile past my house and back for a quicker final mile. Twenty miles in two hours fifty minutes at an average speed of 8:30. I was aiming for twenty one miles at an average speed of 8:06 so I’m not too happy.

On reflection I may have to just abandon a target time and just aim to get round as quickly as I can. I have three more long runs in my schedule and I’m not looking forward to them. They’re joyless and I feel overdressed and overburdened. I’ll try the camelback thing next time, but the water tastes horrible and I haven’t really mastered drinking through the tube thing. Another thing that is really irksome is the gels. Whenever I rip the top off it makes a pinhole which is almost impossible to get the gel out of. By the time I’ve got the gel out I’ve got messy hands and I’ve stumbled along for half a mile.

I don’t get the impression from other blogs that other people are struggling with their long runs the way I am. Michael and Kay are running them too quickly! Russ and Julie don’t seem to mention pace, but seem very upbeat. Must be just me then. They all seem to be running the Trimpell 20; wonder if I should? No entries on the day but on-line still open. Bugger, on-line is closed when I go into it. Decision made.