Kilimanjaro seems such a long time ago now and with the marathon only a month away the memories are fading as my focus is purely on completing the last challenge.
I was interested to see how my body would react after getting back from Africa, so it was 2 days before i attempted my first run, well i guess it managed quite well as I comfortably covered 6 1/2 miles. This was a big confidence boost as after Mont Blanc I was worried my body would feel the same. Training continued to go well that week doing 2 seperate 5 mile runs, one at pace and one casual, although slightly hindered by the fact we were away in London for the weekend for Rachel's birthday. We took the kids to see the Lion King in the West End and I must admit I too thoroughly enjoyed it. I did take my running gear and forced myself out of bed early sunday morning and headed out through green park and hyde park, covered 10 miles and then went back to the hotel. No sooner had I jumped in the shower then the fire alarm went off. Rachel and the boys went down and I followed after showering and I was still no where near the last one out the building.
The following week the training continued to go well, although after the 10 mile in London, the back of my right knee had swollen up. Was not sure what that was until I was on the running machine and realised that my patella knee support that i wear was too tight, after removing it I have so far had no more problems with my knee and I covered 6 miles, 5 miles and 6 miles respectively, My long run for the week was scheduled for friday as I had to go to Dubai on business on saturday and I wasn't going to attempt to run in the heat.
So friday comes and I leave work on time for once. My plan is to do 18 miles, however, the weather is awful so this is a dilemma. There's no way in this wind and rain that I will do 18 miles so my only option is the treadmill. So MTV on and off we go. Things go well to start with and very quickly 2 hours have passed and i have covered 14 miles. Then the treadmill starts to make a funny noise and seems to be creating a trough in the middle of the running surface. At 15 miles I hear a loud crack and again the trough gets bigger. I decide to slow it down a little to see if that helps but no, I can now smell burning rubber! So at 17.5 miles I stop the treadmill, quickly change my top, put on the raincoat and my garmin and head off out. It seems to take ages for my watch to get a satellite signal and my legs are getting cold, finally off we go its probably only been 5 mins since i got off the treadmill but thats all it took to change my rhythm. I manage 3 miles and i am drenched but also elated as I have cracked 20 miles and felt great and the time was 3 hours dead. If the treadmill hadn't given out i think i could have pushed myself to complete 26miles. My fitness is there just need to balance the training.
I do think the treadill is really bust now, which will be a pain as its easy to jump on there and run than go out in the cold! I have decided that I am a fair weather runner!
So Dubai, god its hot and the humidty is unbearable at 85% on arrival. The hotel however as a good gym. The downside to this is that the treadmills are the ones with the built in fan, the little slot at the top of the display. They don't work that great in the UK and as I suspected they are terrible here. I don't think I ever sweated this much on my 20 mile run let alone the 4.5 miles I did on sunday evening. Monday I ran 7 and Tuesday another 4.5. As i'm travelling back on wednesday I can have 2 days off, run again on friday and then this Sunday the plan is to do 23 miles thats a round trip to the office!
Once again I'm at another airport waiting for a plane. Went to put my ipod on but for some reason nothing from it and yes it is charged I made sure last night.
Picture attached is the view from my room at sunset. Unfortunately it doesn't compare to the views experienced on Mont Blanc and Kilimanjaro. I find myself missing the mountains.
Sent from my HTC
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