When I looked at this week’s training block, my first thought was “oh crap” — especially considering I’d completed the Heaton Park Half Marathon just the Sunday before. I had to shuffle sessions around to allow a proper rest day on Monday, followed by mile repeats on the treadmill where I held the pace but definitely felt the heaviness in my legs. By Wednesday morning, for the first time in a while, doubt crept in — the 4am alarm came and went, I went back to sleep, then woke up around 7am, got myself together and headed out anyway. I’m glad I did because I felt good all the way through; the only real regret was hydration as I only took 500ml of water and should’ve worn my vest and bladder — lesson learned. The jelly babies once again did the job perfectly and are now officially my fuel of choice. I got the 24k done despite Strava tax showing it slightly short, and when I step back and look at it — two half marathon distances in four days plus a mile repeat session — I know this month is going to be hard, but with every run I’m growing in confidence and trusting myself more.

Bloody hell, Thursday was a different story though — my body was depleted and that Wednesday run had taken my reserves. I was tired and knew I had to carb up, so I stuck with my Square bars and planned a proper carb refeed on Friday and Saturday, aiming for over 500g of carbs each day. The plan was to increase my running fuel on Sunday for the MediaCity Half Marathon — gels alongside jelly babies to give me that buffer and keep my glycogen high — then refeed again Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to be ready for next week’s long run.

Race day arrived and even though I knew it was flat and I could potentially chase a new PB, today was more important for a different reason — pacing Jas to around 2:15 and keeping it non-stop. She absolutely nailed it. I kept the pace consistent throughout, only easing slightly in the last two miles as fatigue began to kick in for her. I was incredibly proud watching her push through the pain barrier. We were just 33 seconds off a sub-2:15, but that only fuels the fire. We’ve got Cheshire next month where we’ll aim for 2:10, taking her to the next level — with the bigger goal of getting her under 2 hours by November.