Running Hungry

So, I've just about nicely recovered from traumas of last week. The big race weekend complete with red running pants followed a nasty week at work and with college on Monday nights its all just felt a bit of slog these last few days. Having had a couple of early nights, lots of food and time to reflect on it all I'm now hungry to get back into the training swing after what's been another fortnight of disrupted training building in an unexpected HM race.

The run on Sunday was a great experience for me. It was definitely a step up to a different level of racing and I was competing with women who are marathon strong. If nothing else Sunday's race has fired me up even more in my efforts to build for a marathon seeing the strength this brings. I also feel some renewed confidence in what I might achieve with that kind of training in my legs. The course at Warrington was a great one for racing; the first 7 miles of gentle incline were a strength sapping slog and then the flatter final miles suiting a fast finish for those with anything left in their legs. My lack of regular long runs in recent weeks meant the course found me out - I just didn't have enough in my legs to take advantage of the faster final miles.

I'm now hungrier than ever to get the long runs in and think some targeted training to peak at the end of the year could produce a good HM result in January. I'm even thinking that some significant sacrifices need to made. The dates for the Complete Runner XC series have confirmed my fears that many of the fixtures are on Sundays, forcing a choice between that or my long run. I think the long run has to win and XCs will have to come second place. I do love the XC season but this year brings different priorities. A steady week until Thursday when a return of a longer run will lead into a start of quality training this weekend. It'll be good to get back to the hard work, intervals and long runs. [Yawn] Night night.