Deliberate half-marathon #1

Yesterday I did my second half-marathon training session and this time it was deliberate. Having run out of longer routes in Ilkley, I decided that a good option might be to take the train to Shipley and then run from there to Leeds along the Leeds & Liverpool canal. The first time I did it I hadn't been able to get an accurate distance for it, so when I got half a mile in and saw 'Leeds 12 3/4m' on a towpath marker I panicked a bit and started to build in walking breaks. I finished that one in 2:27, which wasn't bad considering the circumstances but I knew I'd walked too much.

This time I was much more prepared with a bit of carb-loading and some Jelly Babies in my back pocket as en route fuel. I haven't run as much as I would have liked in the last few weeks due to work rotas, but I decided to try out a 10:10 pace, which turned out to be pretty comfortable. I finished in 2:12:55, celebrating with a dash through the fountains in Leeds to cool off.

My Great North Run race pack arrived on Saturday, which makes it all a bit more real. Just 5 weeks to go now and I need to get my training back on track.