Still here...

Eight weeks and no updates. You could be forgiven for thinking that I had thrown in my towel. But no, a trip to Australia, a cyclone, a wedding and a week-long snotty nose later, I'm still ploughing on.

I'm nearly at the end of my training period. I have just 3 weeks to Race day and my training has been less-than-stellar. Given everything that life had on offer these past couple of months, I just did not manage to stick to the plan. However, I did prioritise the weekly long run and whatever the situation, I tried to push things around and squeeze in at least that one crucial run every week.

The logic is this: considering that this is my first time attempting this distance, my primary goal is just to get to the finish line. To last on my feet for however long it takes to cover the distance. So then, the aim being endurance, the weekly long run gets a slight edge over all the other runs on the training chart. Don't get me wrong, everything else on there is important too - the tempo runs, the strength sessions and the walks - and in an ideal situation, my training log should have been covered with green ticks and not pock marked with so many red crosses - but in a less than ideal situation (such as what I've had) I'm glad that the green ticks are next to the long runs.

Yesterday I ran my longest run so far in the training cycle: 3hours and 20 minutes. I am still a little sick - a bad cough and a stuffy nose persists - so my sleep has been less-than-ideal and I am in general more fatigued that normal. So I'm not surprised that the run felt very laboured and tough. Anticipating that it wasn't going to be great, I had factored in 1 minute walks every 10 minutes, that probably helped me get to the end, but nevertheless, after about 2 and a half hours, my right knee started feeling strained (it is usually always the first to complain) and the last 50 minutes was spent mostly just walking. Still, I managed to cover about 23km.. which is the longest I have ever gone. Ever. Small victories :). 

This week is meant to be "Peak Week". Going to try and get in all my runs and at least 2 strength sessions and close the week with a 3hr 40 minute run. I'm hoping I'll be better rested and in better condition this Sunday than what I was in yesterday and that I will be able to keep running through the whole duration. If I can cover about 26/27 km in that time, I'll definitely feel better going in to race week.