Weeks 9 now seems like a very long time ago! There’s no hiding it, I’m writing this as we start week 11 and there’s a lot to download from my famously unreliable memory. It was certainly an action packed week, and the reason for the delay will be explained in the week 10 post…

The highlight of this week was Weeman and Lissi going on a jolly to Kettering to complete the half-marathon together (well, they started at the same time at least!). The first event we have managed to get together for in what feels like 6 months. The combined marathon distance led to our highest weekly total to date, smashing the 120km barrier! With both completing their training plans nicely to date, everything looked to be going well. Until Lissi realised she hadn’t run a half marathon “in forever” and nudged the stress needle all the way up to Mach 8. A long week of suffering for Daz ensued, with circular conversations about how the hell Lissi was going to carry enough water to stay hydrated for 21kms, completely ignoring the fact that THEY SUPPLY WATER AT REGULAR WATER STATIONS! Seriously, they usually have enough water to fill Draycote at these events. What is Lissi’s tried and tested way of managing her stress? You guessed it, more money to be spent on running gear! Having maxed out the shoe storage, this week turned to hydration vests. Obviously Lissi can’t just buy the one on sale, or order one at the start of the week so it arrives in time. No, no. She has to research, research and then, yep, research it some more. And by “research” I mean over think the ever loving life out of a bottle holder with Jelly Baby pocket. Such analysis leads to the inevitable paralysis, so instead of ordering one at the beginning of the week, or at any point in the last 10 WEEKS(!), she orders one at the last minute to arrive on by mid day on the Saturday. Praise went to which ever god you subscribe to (or Amazon) and it duly arrived in time. BUT – you absolutely cannot break the golden rule of running – never forget the nut butter - nothing new before a major run… so off we trotted, kids and all, for a grand total of 500 meters to test and “break it in”.

Lissi at Weeman pre Kettering Half Marathon.

Thankfully, everything came together and copious Jelly Babies were consumed, you know, for testing purposes. Daz had wisely outsourced this run to Weeman in an attempt to share the mental exhaustion of Lissi’s freakout, and was merrily waving them off at 7 on Sunday morning. Coaching 25 U7s at rugby is less chaotic and stressful than managing Lissi on a half marathon week. Weeman played his standard “it’s just a practise, steady pace” card, before setting his 3rd fastest time for a half with a crazy time 1hr 56.01. Anyone who knows Weeman will know that single second will be driving him mad! Mercifully the official timing came in at 1hr 55.52 so we had a happy Weeman that day. Lissi also set an incredible time of 2hrs 22 – given the battle with her feet and the abject fear of running 21Km, she absolutely smashed it, beating her previous time in Bristol while managing to keep her physio happy by not pushing too fast.

Which just left Daz. This week Daz became an official tri-athlete! On the Wednesday night and keen to rest his Achillies a little, he mixed up the training plan to complete a slow 5K jog, a 40 minute GCN session on the bike, followed by a 30 minute splash in the bath (bubbles included). Triathlon complete. This just left him for his final run of the week to plod around 3 laps of Draycote, all by himself, for 24km. After last week with his legs not quite wanting to go as far as his mind did, fuel was top of the agenda. Whether it was the week of Lissi nagging reminding him to “Fuel the marathon”, the stress eating caused by Lissi and her hydration vest “chat”, or (most likely) the new nutrition plan of 2 Kitkats per day, the 24Km this week was in stark contrast to the previous week with a half marathon time smack in the middle of Lissi and Weeman at 2hrs 8 minutes. By the end, and almost not wanting to stop (ha! Who am I kidding!!) he was even cognisant enough to remember to take a selfie of his Jonny Bravo inspired hairdo. Kitkats it is all week for the next challenge then… on to the 20 miler….

KM Counter:

Weeman: 50.18

Lissi: 32.78

Daz: 38.37

Weekly Total: 121.33 (Furthest to date!)

Total: 899.63

Week 9 – We made it!

Week 10 – A week of milestones. And Ofsted!

Week 8 - Fuel the beast!