The first 9 miles are the hardest

I took off for Salthill on Saturday this week to get my LSR in, a bit apprehensive that i may be hitting my wall in terms of distance for training. I suppose with this being new to me this is to be expected, but felt really stressed thinking about how am I going to pace myself? What if i have to stop? What if this is as far as i can go?

The best thing probably is that these questions pop up in my training runs, and hopefully these things will be gone by the time i do the half marathon. But got on with it anyways as I took off from the Claddagh and made my way towards the Prom, consciously trying to keep the pace nice and steady so not to blow up half way down the road. After the first 3km or so, I started to feel like myself again and felt my breathing start to settle and feel a bit more comfortable in my run. As I reached the end of the Prom i headed up the road towards the turn down to the caravan park and started to loop back and was beginning to feel that maybe this isn't my wall just yet.

Into my second loop and coming towards the 13km mark at the end of the Prom I got that familiar sore legs as i knew the hill towards the caravan park was coming up again (talk about mid games), and said "screw it" and just pushed on up the hill. I'm telling you, i never felt that hill so long as i did on Saturday, even though its only about 800 metres. When i finally got to the top i turned left, and was never so happy to see a downhill section and plodded around to come back to the Prom. That was it, 15.25km - was never so happy (and sore) as I was then, such a great feeling.

This time last year this would have been nothing more than me making excuses that i could never do this, and have somehow come this far. Its a great feeling, long may it last :)

Location: 15.25km Galway Bay Half Marathon Route
Distance: 9.48 miles (15.25km)
Pace: 8:42 p/mile
Time: 1:22:30

Just curious if any fellow runners read this (hopefully haven't bored you to tears yet), but what sort of tricks would you have to take the mind off the pain when you know you're reaching the tough end of a race? Would really appreciate some feedback on this and my blog in general as well:)

Facing my fear

I've sort of jumped into this blog about 8 weeks into my half marathon training, I'm using the Hal Higdon Half Marathon Novice Plan and have progressed to 13.2km without having to stop. Here's hoping i can keep the progress up.

Monday 22/08/11:

My long run was pushed back to Monday this week due to not been home on the weekend but hopefully will get back to normal after this week. Took to Salthill tonight to follow the route of the Galway Bay Half (well the first 13km of it). Was a bit unsettled by this as i wasn't sure what was in front of me, plus i could be putting myself off the race itself :)


Anyways I found the route to be decent and flat, which is a nice change from the usual runs up Taylor's Hill which i've been doing of late. I reckon that the second loop around the caravan park at the 14km mark will be where the suffering will start for the less seasoned runners like myself. But am delighted to knock out the first 13 and a bit km without stopping. A massive jump since April for me, when 5-10km was the target.

Location: First 13km of Galway Bay Half route
Distance: 8.2 miles (13.2 km)
Pace: 8:31 p/mile
Time: 1:09:54