2 weeks to go, 21.6 miles and a niggling cut reducing my weekly total

This week was quite disappointing as I had anticipated doing 35-40 miles and ended up being nowhere near that. I had a difficult time finding free time to go out before Thursday so started my running week with 5.4 miles that evening.

I found my repeat of this route on Friday night a bit more settled as I had felt like I hadn’t ran in ages going round on Thursday. It was also nice knowing I was on annual leave for a while.

I managed 2 laps of the 5.4 mile route yesterday and was appalled at how cold I was for the first 2 miles. That is definitely a downside of running at this pace that it takes you so long to warm up. Once I got past that point I was fine and managed to maintain a sort of rhythm at that pace and not be discouraged by the multiple changes in weather. It was the first time I can remember training in falling snow for ages!

When I got back I noticed there was a small cut on my right ankle which was quite painful. This wasn’t helped by the other half consistently prodding it throughout the afternoon/evening. Nevertheless I was adamant I would head out on it the next morning.

I woke up around 8.15 and by 8.30 I was out the door. I found it was a lot more painful than previous cuts/blisters I had ran through so decided to turn around and walk home after about half a mile. This close to the race it hardly seemed worthwhile to force my way through it.

I am going to aim to head out for one of the 5.4 mile laps before the race on Saturday. It will be a relief to be the other side of this race as I have gone from training for the Skiddaw race into this one without much down time in training. Hopefully the adrenaline of the day will get me through my 12 laps. It certainly feels like the efforts of the last 23 weeks are not worth settling for less than that!