29 days 20 hours 24 mins and 21 seconds to go!

Father, Im very sorry its about 3 weeks since my last confession...he he.

25th Feb was my last marathon blog entry and quite a bit has happened since then. I stupidly went skiing and my legs were still recovering right up until Thursday morning! I didn't manage to do any running on holiday but I could barely walk by the end of 6 hours skiing not to mention running! I came back on the Saturday with very good intentions to marshall at the Vets Cross Country and then do an 18 miler on Sunday afternoon. I did marshall, so I did one thing right!! However, I felt rotten probably most of the way around the afternoon run, tired and drained from the travel and pounding on the legs from the pistes of Austria. (I was also sweating Vodka and Diet coke all the way around, I should have bottled it and sold it at the local Threshers!!) We wont talk about that though.. oops. I only managed 16.5 mile with Mark... he had had a good weeks training so I think he was feeling the pinch in the legs too. On the way back, he saw Astrid and Steve hurtling by on the start of their 14.2 miler I believe. The mad couple were going to do a 45 min tempo run in the middle. Amazing.

Anyway, so, I decided to rest on Monday and did a Yoga class which fortunately concentrated on the hamstrings (just what the doctor ordered)...and trained at the club on Tuesday... doing the Dunhams Lane circuits. I only managed 4 of the 6 which is bad but my legs felt very tight. My whole session would have been 6 miles so nothing too embarrassing but I was annoyed I wasn't better recovered from the holiday and Sundays run and able to do the 6 reps on the plan.

I had higher hopes for Wednesday for my 10 miler, again with Mark. But OH NO! I failed miserably of course and had to stop at about 8 miles and walk the rest of the way. Thighs and back of legs were just too painful. I did a Body Balance Class afterwards and it honestly seemed to do the trick. On Thursday morning, my legs felt the best they had felt for a couple of weeks. So, Im happy to say that the 6 miles I did last night with Jane and Gary felt comfortable and with no aches and pains. Given that I have to do 20 miles at Oakley on Sunday I will be fitting in a swim, sauna and relaxing stretch between now and then, no running though!

I really need to complete Oakley in around the same time as Bury. Its going to have to be an early night on Saturday with a belly full of pasta and NO Vodka and Diet Coke!

In my mind, I'm not feeling overly confident about London. Ideally this year I would have liked to get a half decent time (ie, as close to 3:04 as possible) but I just don't think the training is in the bank. Having the holiday has screwed things up a little bit, but to be honest, experience tells me that sometimes, no matter how much training and preparation you do, it will go as it goes on the day and I'm afraid you don't don't have that level of control over your body so you just have to sit tight and see what happens on the day! Lets see how Oakley goes this weekend and then Ill re-assess my thinking next week.

In the meantime, GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE ROME MARATHONERS!!! Positive thoughts coming from Lissa Squirrel!!

Over and Out