7 weeks to go, 4 Spanish 7.5 mile strolls, a distinct lack of sunglasses and a 15 mile run

I was very lucky this week that 4 of my training runs were in Tenerife. The plan was to run for about an hour in the morning before it gets too hot and ensure I drank plenty on my return. One of the main things I enjoy about living in hilly cities (e.g. Leeds,Sheffield) is that I am never more than 2-3 miles from a decent summit. Unfortunately this means whenever I go to Manchester the hills are treadmill based as it is the sort of place people class a bridge over tram tracks as a hill!

The area we were staying in was mostly flat but I found a brilliant twisting hill about 2km long that led to a hotel aptly called Panoramica Heights. My first run including this hill was very enjoyable as there were lots of false summits before the road twisted further uphill. I then set a target of running the route in under an hour. This was achieved on the 3rd run of the week mostly due to “freefalling” back down the hill much to the disdain of the spanish runners in sunglasses struggling in the opposite direction.

One disadvantage of setting time targets for routes is there isn’t the same motivation to repeat them once you’ve got under your target. Yesterday was the hottest by about 3 degrees and I had nowhere near the level of enthusiasm I had for the runs earlier in the week. Whilst several parts of Tenerife are very picturesque, the novelty had worn off from running along and seeing the same broken glass and used condom on the streets for the 4th time!

I’ve never really been someone who wears sunglasses when running but did feel at a disadvantage without them yesterday. The feeling like a poser and general lack of sympathy from marshalls and spectators during races usually puts me off wearing them but I will put all of that aside and pack some in my Camelbak for the race next month.

To finish the week I did 2 laps of a 7.5 mile loop near my house. I quite enjoyed running in shade for the first time in a fortnight and while the first lap was comfortable, I struggled a bit on my 2nd lap. This was most likely a result of dehydration (should really start taking the Camelbak on long runs!) but I remembered one of my favourite motivation quotes from Twitter which helped

“True motivation comes from within. No one can hand it to you, but no one can take it away either.”

Unfortunately Tweeters (decided not to use David Cameron’s term for them!) aren’t great at referencing their quotes but I still like the sentiment of it.

The race feels a lot closer now than when I first started writing blogs 8 weeks ago and I have noticed the extra confidence in my voice when discussing it with people. Once I’ve got the last long training run out of the way I can look at tapering before the race. Hopefully this will go as well as the last few weeks but I’m not underestimating it. Stay tuned in the next few weeks to hear how the 34-36 mile run goes.