It was great to feel the sun on my skin again last weekend. Admittedly
there was still a lot of mud (thank goodness for mud claws!) And some
serious flooding. But I just loved being out in the Surrey Hills again
and feeling a hint of spring.
It also helped that Brett was running again. He was out of action for a
month before Christmas with a twisted ankle and has been ill since
Christmas. So I've been doing most of my running on my own. I do enjoy
having the time to myself to think but I get that for about 35 miles
during the week. When I'm out exploring the hills at the weekend I
prefer to have company - especially as the runs get longer and I've now
started regularly pushing up over the 3 hour barrier again.
So things are generally feeling pretty positive at the moment. Which is
good as we've got lots of exciting things lined up. And that makes me
realise that I've not committed electronic pen to paper and listed my
2014 races on here....
My racing has actually already begun - with the first race in the G3
series. This was the first 10k I'd done in a very long time and it was a
real lung and leg buster. Stupidly hilly and very muddy - but there was
no way I was going to let myself walk on a 10k course!
And that's been the point of entering - last year I think I did too much
long slow stuff and it meant I could keep going but lost top end speed,
got injured and it stopped being fun. So this winter I'm mixing it up a
bit - the G3 series plus two road half marathons (Wokingham and
Surrey).
Then in April the ultra season starts.... The South Downs Way 50 at the
beginning of April, the Malvern Hills ultra (54 miles) four weeks later
and then the biggie in June - the South Downs Way 100. My first 100
miler - eek!
