12 miles to Rougham Suffolk

My longest run of the year and my biggest mileage week of the year. Lots of positivies from the run today which was a 6 mile out and back to Rougham in Suffolk. My time was slow 1.49.16 for the 12 miles which is a 9.06 pace.

The main thing to take from the run was my improving stamina as I have  gradually increased my long run from 10 to 12 miles this year. This is filling me with confidence that I will at leat complete the half marathon at the end of March.

Looking at my diary this was my first 12 mile run since 25 May 2009 nine months ago! This is the biggest reason for my lack of speed and stamina as I just don't have a good base of training. Back in May 2009 I ran 1.44.22 in training so I have lost some 5 minutes in pace since then.

I heard on Marathon Talk that the effects of sciatica can take some time to work through and recover from with tight glutes being a particular problem. If you listen to running podcasts then I really recommend Marathon Talk as being one of the very best to listen to at the moment. I had no problems with any aches or pains today so I am currently injury free another big plus.

My splits today showed I set of very slowly but improved in the 2nd half of the run 9.09,9.18,9.05,9.22,9.37,9.04,8.38,8.24,8.40,9.05,9.31,9.18.

My run today took me along Rushbrooke Lane  and Blackthorpe before reaching Rougham. My turn around half way point was just beyond St Mary's Church at Rougham.

On this run I was able to get off road to follow a pathway to the church at Rougham. I also came across this phone box which had plenty of ventilation with seemingly no glass left in the frame of the box. Red phone boxes which were once a common site in every English village are now beginning to become a rarity as they are removed. You can understand why since the arrival of the mobile phone when was the last time you used one? I honestly don't remember and I wouldn't know what coins you should now use in a phone box. I guess this one will be gone before too long.

Any run to Rushbrooke passes fields with hundreds of pigs. If blogs could have smellovision then you would have had a treat and could have shared that piggy/muddy smell that came off the fields!

Today I continued to listen the serialisation of the book I am listening to on podiobooks called Dreaming of Deliverance worth downloading for free if you are out on a long run. Listening to a book on a run really helps you to switch of and the miles fly by.

So I have successfully completed week 5 of my half marathon training and I ran 41 miles. The most I have run since the week of 26th March 2007.

Looking at my parrott predictor time for the marathon I again had a slight improvement in my fastest 26.2 miles of the week.

My times show Jan 11th 3.53.07;Jan 18th 3.50.36, Jan 25th  3.49.50 and Feb 1st 3.49.1112