12 weeks to go.

Well the clock is ticking (excuse the pun) as we head into the second week of February (God where is the time going?!).  Last week (Week 5) finished on a total of 4 runs over 23 miles so the mileage is creeping up, this week I'm going for 25 miles, which with a bit of tweaking I should be able to cover in four runs again.  A proper length long run at the weekend (with no chaffing!) should see that done.  Tonight is going to be the same 6.4 mile route I did a couple of times last week, at the pace target of 9:45 mins per mile, so we'll see how I get on.
So here I am, back after my run.  I was taking no chances tonight and had padded plasters on my "wounds", long boxers, running shorts and then tracksters on top.  Four layers to protect my delicate little thighs.  Bless.  It did the job though and I headed off using the Virtual Partner on my Garmin to keep around the 9:45 pace.  It all went pretty smoothly and I got to 4.5 miles just 10 seconds down so decided to push on and up the pace for the last two miles home.  I'm beginning to get a feel for the sort of pace I'm running at and was pretty confident of making up the time, and by the end I had actually gained a minute and finished in 1:01:25, which translates as 9:36 pace. Whilst I was a little surprised to find myself down at 4.5 miles I was happy with the finish tonight, seeing as the race is going to be twice as long as this training run it was good to be feeling strong at the six mile mark.  I'm going to have a rest day tomorrow and then I think I might have a bit of a go at some fartleking on Wednesday.  (S)