101 Miles in January

Well the last time I updated my blog, I had a bit of a viral hangover, I'm still not 100%, but it doesn't appear to be affecting my running and the D33 looks achievable, less than 7 weeks away - swallows hard!!  I'm building up my mileage as per the 4 day training plan, I have a couple of times had to drop one of the shorter runs, but I meet with a personal trainer once a week and he puts me through my paces - no rest for the wicked!  It is quite hard trying to fit work into family life, parkrun and D33 training.  I've also signed up for the 5x50 challenge which starts at the end of March which comes at a good time as I won't be training for the D33.  The 5x50 will help me with another challenge that a group of us from Strathclyde parkrun are doing on 21st - 22nd June, The Scottish parkathon.  The plan is to run all of the Scottish parkrun courses over a 24 hour period on the weekend of the longest day.  All of the runs will be 'freedom' runs with the exception of one which will be the last one - our home run and this will be a live run.  It'll be interesting to see how we cope with the travelling across Scotland, the stop - starting, running through the night and the sleep deprivation.  At present there are 8 Scottish parkrun's, but a little bird tells me there will be another one starting very soon and I know there is a lot of chat about another Glasgow one in Tollcross - hopefully nobody sets one up in the Western Isles before our planned parkathon!!!  Lily has started joining Harvey and me on our runs, she's not harnessed up and she only runs a very short distance, she seems to be enjoying it, but I want to be careful not to push her, her bones are still developing and to use one of my aunties quotes, she is 'growing like a weed'.  Harvey and I ran 13 miles yesterday, he was less keen to join me in my 20 mile run today, we compromised and he ran 4 miles, the weather changed for the worse when we were out, rain became really heavy and the wind was so strong that at times it felt like someone was hanging onto my jacket and I could barely move forward. Fortunately I have a treadmill at home and that's where I retreated to.  Some will say, that I won't be able to do that on D day and they're right, but just now I have choice and  when race day comes I'll just have to get on with it.  Todays 20 miler took me to 101 miles for January. I don't think that I've ever ran that distance in January since I started running in May 2003, it would have been nearer to the 200 had I not been ill at the beginning of January, but hey ho, mustn't dwell on what might've been and I am delighted with my progress.  Big miles to be run in February in preparation for the D33, I hope the weather gets better, it'll make the training so much more pleasurable.  Now to deal with the achy muscles, where is that foam roller?