Week 4: Happy new year!
OK, so it may be a bit late for that, but I’ve been on holiday for the past couple of weeks and this is the first chance I’ve had to update my blog.
I think this is a good point to update you with what my running-related plans are for this year. Training is well under way for the Paris Marathon, which I’ve been accepted into.
After that, there’s the Leeds 10k in June, which I’ve also applied for. I don’t know if I’ve got in yet, but since I ran last year I’m not worried about not getting a place.
Then there’s a gap over the rest of summer until September, when I hope to be running in the Great North Run. This is the world’s largest half-marathon, so places are assigned via a ballot system.
Finally, my last major run of 2009 will the Dublin Marathon (again). I really enjoyed running it last year, so I applied for this years’ run almost as soon as entries opened.
Unfortunately, I managed to pick up a cold between getting on the plane over there at the end of my holiday and getting off over here. I was seriously annoyed, but I’ve got over the worst of it now. Nevertheless, I didn’t want it to get in the way of my Paris Marathon training, so on Saturday I went out for my first run of 2009.
The usual advice is not to run whilst ill, however, it can actually be beneficial to do a short run if you have a cold, because it helps the clear the airways (Disclaimer: Don’t go running if you have a cold with a fever or chesty cough). There was a lot of sniffling going on, which was annoying, but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact I didn’t need to put too much effort in, nor did I feel really tired by the end of it. Probably the opposite in fact.
I was worried I might have lost a lot of fitness over Christmas, but it looks like I needn’t have bothered, as those three weeks of training before my Christmas holiday appeared to have paid off.