A Fine 13.5 Mile Run, A Week Ahead Of The Great Birmingham Run.

Today I set out on a long run, aiming for anything between 10 and 13 to close off another hum-drum week. In usual Angry Jogger fashion, I had 1.5 litres of Monster before the run and nearly got caught short walking out the door. I had to sprint upstairs to make it to the toilet on time.

Turns out Monster can nip you on the ass when you least expect it.

It was pissing with rain most of the way, but that didn’t stop me having one of the best runs I’ve had in a long time.

By 8 miles I wasn’t really feeling any discomfort in my legs. I was out in the countryside alone and bored senseless. This is when I took it upon myself to try to antagonise the cows that were stirring around in the fields at the road side.

I gave them the evil eye. Telepathically I insulted their mothers and their mothers before their mothers.

They did not respond to my taunts. I got officially psyched out by cattle.

You run like a big fanny sunshine, now get the fuck past by pasture otherwise I’ll tank you one. 

By 10 miles I knew that I’d finish fine so I increased my pace to around a 9:30 min/mile and decided to keep going past 13.1 miles to make sure that I have the distance nailed for Birmingham.

I finished on a sprint at 13.5 miles. I could have continued on further but quite frankly I was bored off my tits and just wanted to lie down with a pizza.

That’s 3 half marathons now in 3 weeks or 7 in 8 weeks. Running that distance consistently has given me more stamina and a lot more confidence after the 10 mile mark. The only thing to do now is to keep on running over 10 miles over the winter and then I can maybe run an entire marathon for once in the spring.

I have Paris on my mind.

So that’s 34 miles for the week and 1515 miles for 2012. Looking back on the year that’s went by I’ve definitely made progress in regards to distance but maybe not so much with speed. Again it’s my diet that’s letting me down.

I’ve been losing weight at the rate of about 0.05lbs a week. It feels like 3 steps forward, 2.99 back at the minute.

But I’m still going forward you know. It’s difficult to break the cycle of comfort eating. It will take time to beat it but I will.

As I typed that last sentence I nearly knocked half a Pot Noodle Curry down my leg.

Typical me, typical me.