November

I’ve enjoyed getting back to the longer mileage this month after taking it easy in October to recover from the Run the Date Challenge.

It was another 200 miles completed towards my year-end target of 2500. I need to run 175 in December to reach my goal. As long as I stay healthy that should be achievable.

It has been enjoyable mixing up early mornings with lunch runs and night runs. For the first time I’ve started regularly listening to music too which has been really enjoyable.

Achievements:

200 miles run

Mile PB of 5:21

Marathon 11/12 and a PB of 3.23:31

Goals for December:

175 miles

Finish 12 marathons in 12 months challenge on New Year’s Eve

Try for a 5k pb? (weather dependent)

Highlight:

Without doubt my highlight was beating my previous marathon PB. I kind of had two; the official one of 3.28 and the unofficial one that I ran at Manchester in 2015, but was scrubbed due to the course being short by 200m – this was 3:24.

I didn’t set out to break it although it had been nagging me for some time. To be honest I felt a little unwell and was just hoping to complete the course. It was a wet and very windy day too which didn’t help, but it was pancake flat along the Thames.

John went off fast and I tried to stick with him. After a tough 6 miles I began to feel more comfortable and that is when I noticed we were averaging sub 8-minute miles. By half-way I had begin to fix my efforts on maintaining the pace and with a few fast miles at the end I would be there or there abouts.

My pace increased and I had to leave John at around 19 miles to push on. With four miles to go I was in all sorts of pain, but despite a wrong turn managed to maintain my push to the line and make it in 3.23.

Best run:

See above. A run I loved for a different reason however was the long Sunday run I did along the wet and muddy tracks west of Hythe. I had all morning available, good music in my ears and squelchy, mucky trails to negotiate. It was great being out in nature, singing to myself and getting filthy.

Lessons learned:

My hips, in particular my right one, and my IT bands are extremely tight. I also have pain and weakness in my gluteus medius on the right side. That is in part a result of hard, fast running but also a lack of discipline in stretching and not getting a massage.

I shall be addressing both these issues this month. I’m delighted that I’ve managed such good times and distances in November but I know I could be quicker if my gait and form was corrected and working properly.

I also need to eat better (change the record). After an 8 miler and 119:06 parkrun I went for a warm down and felt very faint. I was saved by a Falafel wrap but shouldn’t have let my blood sugar levels drop so far.