Week 9 - parts 1 and 2! 

Pt 1: 21.9 miles 
Pt 2: 16.5 miles
38.4 mies

And a week's ski-ing in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy! 

Monday 9th February 

8.22 m @ 7.57 p/m 
1hr 5 mins 
BVH - Harborne Hills route 

Ah, my favourite route - a good social toil over the Harborne hills. Feeling strong after yesterday's 20 miler and a little quicker than was intending, more at marathon pace. Felt tired by the end, but a good run nevertheless

Wednesday 11th February 

13.7m @ 8.22 p/m 
1hr 54 mins 

After a deserved rest day at the theatre watching Edward Scissorhands. back to the marathon plight and possibly the longest midweek run I've ever done! Headed out with Jack after work and we went over to Canon Hill and beyond, a good 10.2 mile loop at 8.33 p/m. I then headed back home the quick way, up the Hagley Road, adding a little pace at 7.58 p/m. A really good run - feeling strong. With packing and ski-ing coming up, that's probably the last run for a while ……

Saturday 14th February - Saturday 21st February 

Ski-ing in Italy! Wow, we had amazing conditions! It snowed on arrival and then we had 1 iffy and 5 glorious days on the slopes. I'm not the most natural of skiers - the boys are much better, but was just starting to feel the rhythm of it, as the week finished! Managed a good number of tricky reds and I'm sure we'll be back. Enjoyed my birthday too

Fitness wise I'm sure the altitude was a decent boost, as was the 5-6 hours of skiing every day. On the downside, the socialising was excellent (a positive but not for the training!), with a good bottle of red wine every evening, plentiful beers and lots of food. With that now out the way, I'm going to commit to good training practice; no alcohol (perhaps a little at Easter), a better diet (less snacking and more healthy eating) and more sleep. I really enjoyed being in bed at 10pm on holiday -will try to do this at him too!

Sunday 22nd February 

16.5 miles @ 8.08 p/m 
2 hrs 14mins 
Canals + Harborne Hills 

After a decent night's sleep, up at a reasonable time and out the door on an icy, cold morning wondering if I could still run! Thankfully no real skiing injuries although I did really bruise my left big toe - I suspect I may lose another nail, as my boot was too tight. Didn't seem to affect my running though.

No real agenda today, wanted to go out for a couple of hours and just run to feel, see how much fitness I've lost. Tingly cold for the first few miles but warned up hitting the canal and to Marathon talk, got into a decent rhythm. Saw lots of BVH'ers going the other way as i headed out of town and felt good after taking a gel breather at 10 miles. I guess it was the diet and lack of running but as I headed to the reverse of the Harborne Hills, the wheels started to come off! The long hills got to me, and I tired substantially; the last 3 or so were a real drag. Back in one piece though and ready now for the second half of the training plan, 9 good weeks. This was a good run though, unintentionally done at marathon pace and with a gentle (ish) recovery week coming up, I can ease back into it …