Reaching Double Figures

On Sunday I ran ten miles!

If anyone had told me I was capable of that even a few months ago I would have laughed. After a pretty rough end to last year, and a rollercoaster beginning to 2014 I haven't felt at my most confident or successful for a good while. Things are slowly coming back together (hellooo new flat), and reaching the level of a double figure run is a massive boost. Something is going right at least 🙂

I caught the train to Clapham Junction, and then followed the Thames Path along the river until I reached Richmond. I liked the simplicity of it- not really much opportunity to get lost, just stick by the river and enjoy the views!

And it was gorgeous- the sun was shining, blue skies, London at it's finest. The Thames Path was abuzz with cyclists, runners, walkers plus all the rowers on the river.

As you may know by now, I love running new routes. I would get so bored if I just ran the same way all the time, I love the excitement of not knowing what's round the next bend and being rewarded with exciting new sights.

In actual fact that's something I'm loving about running longer distances- you get to see so much more, and explore further afield than just running a couple of miles.

I listened to the London Marathon coverage for the first 7miles, until Mo crossed the line, then switched to my Spotify playlist for the final few miles. To be honest for the first 7 I felt great!

With the London Marathon commentary as my soundtrack, I felt like I was running alongside all those amazing people taking on the even more impressive 26.2.

I loved listening to the updates on the elite races too, with their awe-inspiring paces and times pushing me on to channel my "inner Mo"...

After a mid-week run where my calves felt like rocks and I had to stop a lot to stretch them out, I really didn't want to be plagued by that over 10miles. So I went to Bikram Yoga on Friday and followed it up with more Yoga for Runners, stretching and foam rolling on Saturday. Amazingly this meant by Sunday my calves were fine! My legs actually held up pretty well throughout - the occasional knee niggle, but by the end my back was the most achey part. I clearly need to work on my core strength!

I wore a vest top, and because I was carrying a handheld water bottle in my right hand, that arm obviously didn't move as much, so I ended up with a small amount of chafing under my left arm. I'll have to dig out the Vaseline for future long runs 🙂

My fuelling strategy worked well, taking a Gu gel every 45mins (salted caramel, mmm) and having Zero High 5 in my water bottle. The day was pretty warm, despite the shade from the trees by the river and I really didn't want to struggle with dehydration. I completed the 10miles in around 2hours, including several photo stops and walking to eat the gels.

By the time I got to Richmond I was quite happy to collapse on the grass and stretch out my legs - legs which right now I'm pretty proud of 🙂