Well it's safe to say that The Marathon is looming on the not so distant horizon now! It is officially 2 weeks away and I am feeling somewhat nervous!
I seem to swing from feeling really confident to being unsure whether or not I'm going to be able to stagger around the 26.2 miles! At this point, I just need to trust in all the training that I've done and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Sounds simple enough right?
It's safe to say that my training hasn't been 100% smooth sailing; there has been a few injuries, niggles and colds along the way and I've had to scale back the training plan from 4 runs a week to 3. Even though I now don't have the same amount of distance 'in my legs' as others do going into the marathon, if I had continued on the path I was on, I really don't know if I would have made it to the start line.
I also ran(!) into a new issue on last week's long run. I set out with the intention of running 20 miles, taking on a new route running into Kirkby Overblow, finishing my run at Mother Dearest's house. Things were going well and I was enjoying running in new places (apart from the daring dash across the Bypass!), until the most recent in my string of disasters occurred: An asthma attack.
I haven't had an asthma attack for such a long time, that I had considered myself to have 'grown out of it', so the sudden chest pain and realisation that I couldn't breathe easily came as a bit of a shock! Ironically, this all happened outside Kirkby Overblow Cemetery. Having reached 17.5 miles, Mother Dearest's house wasn't far away and I was able to make a slightly panicked phone call requesting rescue. Luckily, I was able to have a quick word with myself, stopped picking out my plot in the cemetery and focused on breathing and the air that was in fact making it into my lungs. I was feeling better by the time Mother Dearest and S arrived, but was still very grateful for the ride home.
I'm currently putting the surprise asthma attack down the fact that it was a warm, humid day, with more pollen around than there has been recently, combined with the fact I was running out in the countryside, which I haven't really done much off recently. In any case, I have had a chat with the doctor and got a new inhaler in case it should happen again.
Today I was supposed to be running 15 miles, however after a busy weekend and a 2 day headache, I have decided to postpone this until tomorrow.. A decision I am probably going to regret as it does make my Monday rather busy! Too late to change my mind now though!
After that 15 miles is out of the way, I only have 5 more training runs (all ranging between 5 and 10 miles) to complete before we travel down to London, which feels very manageable after all the longer ones we have done!
Whilst I have (for the most part) enjoyed the training, I am really looking forward to it being done!
That's not to say I am going to stop running, but that I am looking forward to having a new focus to my running. I want to keep up some of the longer runs, but I want to focus on my 5K and 10K times, working on speed rather than distance.
But first.. maybe a week off!
I'm also pleased to say that I have reached my initial fundraising goal of £2000, which is amazing and I am so grateful to all of you who have already donated to this fantastic cause! If any of you haven't got round to it yet, have no fear - I am still accepting sponsorship and would love to achieve my new fundraising goal of £2600 - £100 for every mile of the marathon.
Please head over to my Just Giving page and leave me a donation and a message! https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Fiona-Kitchingman
No comments:
Post a Comment