The Dress Rehearsal

As well as being last week's postponed 10 miler, my run today became my race rehearsal. I breakfasted as I plane to: normally I would run on bacon + egg on toast, but as lent precludes that I decided to go with the veggie sausages from the shop. I also had powerade to sip as I never have been able to stand lucozade, or many of the other brands  - I think it's an issue with the sweeteners they use. I also took an aptonia apple gel thing from Decathlon (and another brand I picked up in London last year - but didn't end up taking today). 

My plan for the gels etc was to take one after an hour (which seemed to go fine), and to take mouth swill sized sips of the powerade not more than twice a mile (and preferably less).  All seemed to go ok - last mile of the run was a bit stilted, but was running into a pretty strong headwind and it was making me a bit zonked - was also slightly thrown by being stopped and asked for directions, therefore knocking my momentum (but hopefully making sure someone got their piper for their wedding/funeral/other event!).

I have two more runs before the Coniston 14 - still debating whether to keep my tempo session in or not, as Marathon Talk this week was talking about not over-tapering.  If I do, that will be my Monday session, and I plan to do a nice easy run either Tuesday or Wednesday just to keep the muscles moving.  Then off to the lakes on Friday night for an evening in the caravan with the ancient parents, and then Grandad* will be running the race as well on Saturday.

I also (unintentionally) managed to practise the pre-run nerves this morning - I've spent the last few weeks feeling utterly nackered (hence the drop in last week's training) and despite getting a good 10 hours of sleep last night, there's only so much one can catch up on.  However, I psyched myself up, got myself out of the door, and set off.  Next week is much more about getting round on the back of the Jantastic training - not about speed or anything.  The EMF 1/2 in May is the one I am aiming to get a PB in ... and so I just need to remember how well I managed Wilmslow last year after much more broken training (darned PhD) and I dragged my sorry and very slow arse around London too.  

Now I just have to pray that it doesn't rain ...

*For those new to the blog, Grandad is actually my Dad ... it's a long story!