Had a day off from running on Saturday as I didn't really feel 100% and my muscles were still aching from Thursday's hill repeats.  I have been cajoled / persuaded / volunteered (delete as appropriate) into running a 10 mile - yes, 10 miles not 10k - race at the end of this month.  Mixture of on and off road, it promises to be a nice race around Devizes; the only slight sticking point is that approximately 5 miles into the race there is a mile climb along the side of the Caen Hill Locks.  I suppose, if nothing else, it will be a scenic run.

The only thing is that I have never actually run that distance before, really my maximum so far is the 10k races.  So, this means that I have approximately 4 weeks to get myself up to running 10 miles therefore this is my cunning plan; this weekend, run 7 miles, next weekend 8 miles, the weekend after 9 miles and then that leaves race day itself to do the extra mile.  Cunning eh?  So, yesterday I completed the first part of the plan - 7 miles.  It was actually not as bad as I thought it would be.  The first part of the run was along the cycle track but then I decided to do the rest on-road and I found a nice loop which unfortunately turned out not to be quite long enough!  An extra up to the roundabout and down later, and I managed to cover the distance required.  Stats for yesterday:

Distance = 11.53k

Time = 1:08:11

Average Pace = 5.55kph

Average Heart Rate = 154bpm

Pretty pleased with the timings, there was a couple of tricky uphills in the run which slowed down my pace.  I didn't struggle to get that extra mile so all in all I'm happy.

NB: No updates now until at least Friday as we are off to Butlins this week!!  I shall be taking my Garmin and continuing with my training.  My God, when did I become so dedicated?