After last weekend’s double header I was originally due to
keep the momentum going and run the Humber Bridge Half Marathon today, however
a number of reasons made me decide that it would be best to sit it out. So
instead I got up early and went out this morning and counted this week’s run as
a Solo Run.
So
why did I opt against running the Humber Bridge Half Marathon? As I mentioned
in the introduction there were quite a few factors that made my decision.
Firstly how physically and mentally tired I have felt these past couple of
weeks. Ever since the week where Jenny was in hospital and I was getting at
best 4 hours of sleep a night, I have felt like my body has almost been freewheeling.
Whilst Jenny is out of hospital now her health is still far from improving and this causes a lot of stress to both of us. There
is also the matter of how physically wearing it is to ‘be in training’ for all
these races on top of working a 9-5 and then coming home to look after Jenny
and do everything else that needs doing. I needed a break before I collapsed
both physically and mentally.
There was also the fact that last time I borrowed the car to
go to a race and indirectly forced Jenny to walk home from work she ended up in
hospital the following day. This certainly plagued on my mind when making the
decision to not enter the race. After cancelling on the Humber Bridge 10k a few weeks ago and
then today’s cancellation it appears that maybe I just really don’t want to go
to Hull.
Plus if I'm being honest I'm absolutely terrible with heights, so I'm not sure how I would cope running over that.
Despite being a few weeks ahead of schedule the majority of
my running this year is still to come. Of the 6 marathons I have planned to run
this year, so far I have only completed two, leaving four to run before January
1st. Potentially three of these, but at least two, come within a
month of each other. Conditioning is
vital this year, in the six months so far I have ran more than the past couple
of years combined and thought I would take the rare opportunity to 'rest'.
As for today's run it was a fairly comfortable 10 kilometer run. I aimed to get out before the weather got too hot today, having made this mistake a few times before. I was hoping to finish in sub 45, but a very stop/start run meant that I took a few minutes longer, not that it really mattered as it was supposed to be a recovery run first and foremost.
After this weekend I feel a lot more refreshed than I have for the past couple of weeks so I'm hoping to kick on and keep pushing hard towards my 1000km target. I put a lot of pressure on myself this year to enter as many races as I can, as I feel it helps validate the 1000km that I am running. There is therefore always a sense of guilt and frustration when I am unable to do so, regardless of the reasons why.
Tomorrow I am on BBC Radio Lincolnshire at 11am for a catch up interview now that I am halfway through the year. You can listen to that interview here.
As always, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/shanes1000km and donate what you can and please share news of what I am doing with others.
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Distance: 10.00km | 6.2 miles
Time: 00:47:32
Average Pace: 04:45 min/km | 07:39 min/mi
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View my run:
This was a lovely bblog post
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