March started with a holiday. Always a good way to start a month I find. The location was Center Parcs Sherwood Forest and so that gave my daughter and I a perfect excuse for a spot of parkrun tourism.
Just over 3 miles to run to the start line and therefore 3 miles home, I actually managed a long run therefore split into three parts. Good training for the upcoming marathon. The route itself is beautiful and one I would love to do again, certainly one of my favourites to date.
March from then on followed a similar pattern of three to five training runs a week. Days would depend on the kids and also my RD duties at my home parkrun.
My training partner and I trying to fit our long runs in during the week so not to take up too much time on a weekend. Looking at new routes to break up the far too familiar trans Pennine trail and new ways in which we could break up the distance running.
More parkrun fun with my eldest as she tries to complete her alphabet challenge this year. We have 4 more local letters left near us and then we have to start travelling further afield. To complete the challenge we need AGTYEIJKLQUVZ. We have planned ILV as these are not local and AGTY are all local to us. The others are going to take some thinking.
First race of the year at Notts 20 and it was a complete disaster. I just had a rubbish race, no real reason why and it left me feeling really deflated.
Straight back to it though with the training runs and the invasion of the bugs.
It actually got a lot worse than that photo and so the top had to be abandoned which resulted in me running in a sports bra, something I never thought I would do and haven't done since.
The following week I completed the Dark Skies at Kielder marathon. The course was brutal and running in the dark was a whole new experience but I absolutely loved it and am very tempted to sign up again. I wasn't sure what to expect and struggled to get my fuelling right, but given this was my first long distance night run I am pleased with the outcome.
As the end of March drew closer the end of the very long distance training runs came to an end also. I could start to taper ready for Brighton. I had my follow up lactate test done and a final race plan to heart rate put into place ready for Brighton. March also saw one of the last runs with J, as his arthritis has started to flair up quite badly at the moment.
March was all about the final preparation for Brighton marathon, here are the stats in more detail.
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