7 Months! ... aka Here I am

I had to look at the London Marathon site to see how long it is until the big day, was surprised to see exactly 7mths ... that time is going to tick by awfully fast.

So where have I been, what have I been doing?

Well, for a couple of months I really wasn't running, and it was very frustrating, not to mention worrying. Not sure where I got to the ages ago that I was here, but I ended up going to see a sports doctor, she sent me away to get my knees x-rayed and ultra-sounded, they came up with nothing and after more examination she decided (but I don't think was really sure) that it was the very bottom of my hamstrings hurting, basically that is where I was pointing to was hurting coupled with the fact my hamstrings were very weak, seemed to be the logical explanation. She sent me off with instructions to strengthen the hamstrings and that yes, I could run, but not consecutive days and not too much.

So I left there, had already started seeing a Personal Trainer, have carried on seeing him. I started running 5-6km 3x a week and since then have slowly built up. I saw the Doctor again last week and she was very impressed at how much stronger and more stable my body is and we set an appointment for two months time with the plan being that I probably wouldn't need it, but to have it there just in case, and okay to run, but stick to the 10% rules.

So where am I at now? Feeling pretty good :) I've upped my mileage to about 35km/week, I ran 14km last Sunday without the injury playing up. I ran 12km yesterday, that felt fantastic. I'm running a 10km race on Sunday, so that will be a good test to see where I am at. All the strengthening work I've been doing has definitely made my body feel stronger and more stable, speedwise and running fitness wise, I'm not quite where I was at pre-marathon and just after the marathon when I was probably at my peak, but I'm definitely getting there and am pretty confident that I can built up that fitness again pretty quickly.

At this stage I'm pretty much following the same build up as I did last year. The Masterton Half Marathon is in a few weeks, which was my first half last year. I'm hoping to run it, but will see how the body feels, I definitely won't be doing it "as fast as I can", but am hoping to be able to run it at an easy/slow pace, just so in my head I know I'm back at half marathon fitness again. The Rimutaka Incline is on the 13th of November (about 18km), I'll definitely be aiming for that and then the Wanganui Half Marathon on 12th of December ... I'm really hoping to put in a good race and good time at Wanganui, after that I will start marathon training again. Feels like I'm in a time warp in some ways, same plan, same place as a year ago ... except this time I know I've done it once and I can do it again.

I've been eating crap again and it is showing on the scales, I wonder if you ever win against the eating demon? I know in my head that to run just that much faster and easier I need to lose that last 5kg, but I can't seem to buckle down and do it. Oh well, I will keep trying though!

Family is good ... we're in that nice inbetween winter and summer sports time, we have NOTHING on Saturday which is very unusual (okay, I lie, the girls do have cheerleading, but that is later on in the day - no getting up early for it!). I'm not even running or spinning, I'll be resting my legs ready for the Pelorus Trust 10k on Sunday.

Shall I try and promise I'll keep updating here better, or just make no promises - but try?