May Running Update

by Leyla [Thisdayilove] - 23:13

May was such a beautiful month to run in.

I love to run off road and May seemed to be such a beautiful month to do this in. Bluebells were out in force, filling the woodland floor with a beautiful blue carpet. As my running partner and I ran through the woods we just kept stopping to look at how beautiful the bluebells were.

I was getting fed up with plain black leggings so in May I decided to invest in some funky leggings. I bought some whilst we were in America and ordered a few pairs online. They have brightened up my runs and I love my stripey pair from America, they are so comfy!

Marathon training has now officially started which means I am training to do 1 long run every week. I decided to see if I could cover a half marathon distance for my first distance run. It was a gorgeous day and J was happy to run with us. I covered the half distance faster than I had previously raced it!

May had some beautiful mornings to run in. Bright blue skies and some fantastic views.

Not only would I like to run around the world, but I also would love to run in every county in the UK. We visited Mablethorpe recently for my youngest daughters birthday and I could not turn down the opportunity to go for a run to the seaside. It was incredibly windy but worth it to run along the sea front.

My second trunce of the year and I was bouncing off the walls with excitement! I enjoy every second of that race and look forward to it on the race calendar.

More training runs followed in some beautiful woodland and I could not have been happier with the way May was progressing. My runs were getting faster and stronger. My fitness was improving and I felt every run was getting better. I could finally see progress.

My parkrun PB was for the first time sub 28 minutes and I finally felt all my hard work was paying off.

J was enjoying all the running too. He loves coming out on club runs and we were running twice a week with club, in addition to our runs together.

In order to fit marathon training around the children I started running at 4 am. Watching the sunrise as you run is amazing. It made for some very beautiful mornings.

On one of my long training runs disaster struck. A few km into my run I felt my ankle twinge, but it wasn't painful enough to stop. As the run went on it got worse, until the point where I could run no longer. Even on the downhill I wasn't able to run and I was so angry with myself. The views were amazing though. I would love to run the route again one day, the downhills have to be done!

I was unable to walk, let alone run so had to cancel a 10km race I was really looking forward to. I was down to volunteer at parkrun before I injured myself and whilst driving was incredibly painful I still went to enjoy the parkrun atmosphere. I love my parkrun family, they were so incredibly supportive and I had a great time helping in the beautiful weather.

I was missing running and missing club so I went along to one of the training sessions. Not to take part, I could not walk, but simply to be there. I even got to take some photos of the session in progress. It was just nice to be surrounded by team mates again.

My wonderful physio taped up my ankle for me in order to complete the races I had booked in over the weekend. I had been looking forward to them for over a year and didn't want to cancel the whole weekend.

I was incredibly nervous for the race weekend in Liverpool. Still unable to walk I had no idea how I was going to get around the course. My plan was to take it incredibly steady and just see how it felt. I had no time in mind and my friend Sarah agreed to let me run with her.

We stayed together and I found a weird run in order to get me round the course. It was a limping style run but it seemed to work. I managed to get around the 5km almost pain free and whilst it wasn't fast or pretty I still got round.

The next morning I woke up early to get ready for the half marathon. My nerves had really started to kick in. I decided again to find a steady pace and just see how things go.

The cut off time was 4 hours and I knew I could complete the course walking within the time frame. The issue I had was making it back in time for the kids mile race, so I actually had 3 hours. The time however kept getting shorter and shorter as I was in the back pen which got set off late. The route was lovely, a scenic tour of Liverpool. There was plenty of music on route too which helped to make the miles pass really quickly. It was such a lovely route, even with the random hills that kept popping up. Miles 10 to the finish was along the river bank and it was here the pain started to set in.

I saw the finish line on the horizon and pushed to get there. My finish time was a new PB, which I was happy with especially due to the injury. My next challenge was to complete the 1 mile fun race with the kids. It turns out my youngest wanted to run and walk which suited me well!

As soon as we had finished we made a dash to the airport and headed for a week relaxing in the sun in Spain. Just what my tired and achy foot needed!! Yes before you ask I travelled to Spain wearing my full running kit! The remainder of May was spent recovering and resting ready for my favourite race at the start of June!