It's nearly the end of October, the girls are nearly a year old, and I'm finally feeling great about my running again.
It'll still take a while longer to get back to being as fit as I was before I fell pregnant, but after a surprisingly good run at the Chelmsford marathon yesterday, I am so positive about my progress so far, and I know I will get faster and stronger as the months pass. I finished the marathon in 4:32...my second fastest time of the three Chelmsford marathons I've run, and although the two halves weren't quite even, I wasn't far off a negative split! It was pretty hilly, but I didn't use the hills as an excuse to walk, I didn't faff about at aid stations, and was really focused throughout. I've taken about an hour off my marathon times from the summer, and I definitely feel like a proper runner again which makes me so happy.
I'm also 23 days into Ronhill's October runstreak challenge "#runeveryday" which is a celebration of Ron Hill's world record runstreak of 52 years and 39 days! Sometimes it's hard work to get out, like tonight, doing a very slow recovery run after yesterday's marathon, and when I'm so tired too, but generally I'm enjoying it and it's definitely contributed to my improved fitness. I've run more with the girls in the buggy, I've done some decent tempo runs and a bit of speedwork, and it's been great to get my weekly mileage totals back into numbers I recognise. I'm considering trying to continue the streak past October as it really has been nothing but positive. Oh, except that my achilles is pretty sore these days, but hopefully that will go away! I'm buying another magic boot so have to see if that will work again.
My new normal is starting to feel pretty amazing.
It'll still take a while longer to get back to being as fit as I was before I fell pregnant, but after a surprisingly good run at the Chelmsford marathon yesterday, I am so positive about my progress so far, and I know I will get faster and stronger as the months pass. I finished the marathon in 4:32...my second fastest time of the three Chelmsford marathons I've run, and although the two halves weren't quite even, I wasn't far off a negative split! It was pretty hilly, but I didn't use the hills as an excuse to walk, I didn't faff about at aid stations, and was really focused throughout. I've taken about an hour off my marathon times from the summer, and I definitely feel like a proper runner again which makes me so happy.
I'm also 23 days into Ronhill's October runstreak challenge "#runeveryday" which is a celebration of Ron Hill's world record runstreak of 52 years and 39 days! Sometimes it's hard work to get out, like tonight, doing a very slow recovery run after yesterday's marathon, and when I'm so tired too, but generally I'm enjoying it and it's definitely contributed to my improved fitness. I've run more with the girls in the buggy, I've done some decent tempo runs and a bit of speedwork, and it's been great to get my weekly mileage totals back into numbers I recognise. I'm considering trying to continue the streak past October as it really has been nothing but positive. Oh, except that my achilles is pretty sore these days, but hopefully that will go away! I'm buying another magic boot so have to see if that will work again.
My new normal is starting to feel pretty amazing.
