OK, I've cracked and signed up for another half marathon. I didn't say "never again" after the last one, just "not yet".
A little bit has changed since then. My youngest child is a little bit more independent in the mornings which makes heading off for a run a bit easier on family life. I've not done many longer runs in a while, but I have improved my speed in that time which will have a benefit.
I've had another June lull as I've been busy with work taking over. The pressure is now easing with a little more time to run coming up. The summer holidays will bring some disruption to the training program, although they will be active times. I'm pulling out the one I used last year which worked well enough. It helped me build up the longer runs, but I struggled on some of the interval/ tempo runs which I now have more experience with. I liked the way that this one included cross-training which fits with my usual routines.
I'm trying to dig out my mojo. At the weekend I did a short interval run which felt plenty in the heat, and a longer run/ walk of just over an hour which is the longest non-race I've done for a while. I returned to the Greenway route now the rapeseed and its pollen have gone. I then encountered a different environmental hazard- nettles! The recent warm, wet weather has made them grow like crazy, and a path which was perfectly clear some weeks back was overgrown higher than my head! I was still throbbing the next day.
Here's to plenty more runs...
