Ups and downs

After a hard 10K on Weds, I had a busy day on Thursday. I ran 3 miles in the morning, then took the car to the garage for its MOT, which meant I had to walk home, pushing Emma uphill all the way. I had an appointment at the physio too, so I then cycled with Emma in the childseat to the childminder's, then off to the physio. After a beautiful diversion on the way home past a lake, I'd clocked up 10 miles on the bike. Nice.

This weekend, I was really determined I had to get a long run done. Since the marathon (4 weeks ago today), my longest run has been 10K, and with an eye on improving my half time in September, I planned a 10 miler for today. I thought I should definitely be able to get under 2h05 for the half, and so I reckoned that I should aim for about 9.30 min/miles today (which would get a half time of 2h04m).

So I set off at about 10am in the sun - about 20 degrees C. It was my favourite route through the estate at first, then a bit of road running. I started off pretty fast, with my second mile at 8.54, but that's a big downhill. Anyway, I managed to keep it up, and had plenty left to speed up at the end. The last mile was the same speed as the first - 9.06 - which was pleasing. Overall I averaged 9.18 min/miles, which added up to 10 miles in 1h33m01s - woo-hoo! I think my fastest 10 miles before today was 1h37m-ish, so this was a good improvement, and that pace would get me well under 2h05 for the half - and I still have weeks of training to do! So maybe all that marathon training will benefit my speed over 10k and half marathon distance - I certainly hope so.















The off-road part

The bad news is that the car failed its MOT, and needed a part which the garage had to order. The supplier was out of stock, and so we were told that we couldn't have our car back until Monday. We were supposed to be going camping today! Driving down to Wales and then England for a couple of weeks! So we've had to postpone the holiday for a few days. Then our friends who we were going with called, and said they couldn't come after all due to family problems. This is a real shame as we were looking forward to seeing their kids, and the more adults around, the easier it is to share all the work of camping. So it'll just be the 4 of us this year. I just hope the weather stays as it's been this week - wonderful.

As we've had no car for 4 days, we've had to do a bit of cycling to the shops. Robbie's cycling has improved enormously since he got his bike, and I'm pleased to announce he can now go up hills as well as down (as long as they're not too steep). It's about 3 miles there and back to the local shop, and he managed it easily. Emma has no problems with hills, speed or anything else:















The other bad news this week was England's horrendous performance against Algeria in the World Cup. It was truly one of the worst matches I ever remember seeing them play (and that's up against a lot of terrible matches). At least we'll be camping on Wednesday when they play again, so hopefully we won't have to sit through anymore embarrassing rubbish.

So holiday here we come! I probably won't blog until we get back, but I'll be taking my garmin, trainers and running kit, and will try to fit in as much running as I can!















Pete celebrates the final whistle