The first quarter and a bit

January was actually a pretty solid month. I didn't do as much as marcothon month but still managed 100k which is pretty good for me at the moment. More importantly I built up my long runs over the month and got them up to 10 miles while still keeping the parkruns going by just going at an easier pace.

In February long runs went out of the window for no real reason. I would just wake up and fancied running faster. So ended up more often than not just running a mile fast on a Sunday. Then I just went back to going for it at parkruns again.

March was Alloa month and at this point I was thinking that I would have lost my fitness of those long runs I did in January so just kind of went off the idea of doing Alloa.  In hindsight I realise I should have really tried to go out on those long runs just to see if in fact I had lost the long run fitness I had gained in January.  But definitely a lesson learned there.  At least try!

So Alloa was out the window and I was back to running parkruns. My best being at Victoria parkrun getting a 26.43. Which actually equaled my course best there going the opposite direction to last time I did it.

Couple of weeks ago I missed parkrun and ended up doing a 3 mile route that I haven't done for years.  It starts off going up a hill and it is hill I have always struggled with but especially today.  I had to walk about half of it and this was at the start of the run! Needless to say the rest of the run was run/walk.  But it did get me thinking that I want and need to get better at hills again.  In the past it was always one of my strengths and I enjoyed doing hills both on roads and races.

So I am looking at doing some hilly 10ks in June/July. Then beyond that uphill races.  With uphill races I am quite a way from doing them justice as I don't even go hillwalking at the moment. But if I have a good summer I have my name in the hat to do the Mamores VK in Kinlochleven in September. So about 5 months to get myself in shape.  I have studied the route already and its a 3 mile route. The first mile looks half runnable, the second looks like all power hiking, then the third mile half running again (if thats possible after all that climbing!).  So hiking is going to be just as important in training as running.

For starter though as I say it is to get better at road hills and gradually build it up.  I'll be starting to be more selective towards the hillier parkruns like Pollok, Tollcross and Drumchapel (usually I just do any parkrun!).  Also I have scoped out some hills in the area where I can do reps and I have set target times on them to have something to aim for.