Long Run......only 2 or 3 more to go

Well today's training was makeup swim (not good to do) and long run. 

I needed to make up my swim because the earlier part of the week was full of challenges. Well ok maybe not full of them but enough to disrupt training. Firstly on Tuesday my Garmin decided to die mid run. My Garmin is one of my best friend's and I realised I am just a little addicted to having it on my wrist. When I ride it will tell me my km/hr, cadence (rpm), heart rate, distance, time, power. When I run it will tell me my pace, heart rate, lap time, distance. When I swim my old one (the one that died) would give me minimal information like time taken for each set/interval I was doing and total time swum. To train well this information is essential. If I'm doing a recovery run I have to know that I'm running slow enough. If I do speed intervals I need to know I'm going fast enough. When I'm climbing a mountain on my bike I need to know I'm not using too much power so I have enough left in my legs to run a marathon. Such important information. Can you imagine this dies just over a month before race day. Oh No!!!! It turned out pretty amazing. I was able to borrow a friend's for a few days and then by Thursday night my new one had arrived from the States. Phew!!! It did give me a massive panic though. Secondly I needed to take my new bike in for a bike fitting. This is time consuming but well worth it. Between these two things on Wednesday I missed my swim :(

My new and old Garmin. The black one is the new one. So much smaller and not as heavy.

My new bike








My long run was amazing!!! For the last month or so my long runs have felt hard and not as much of a joy as a long run usually is for me. It has been painful. I would start the run and my legs just ache right from the start. I get to 2 hours and the last hour would be tough. I'd finish and then utterly limp home. This is kind of funny because I always manage to keep form during running. BUT today was fantastic. I felt wonderful the whole run. I was dreading the run, even procrastinated and swam first but couldn't put it off any longer. What a joy when it felt so so good. Two things were different. I have started on a new nutrition that is completely different from gels and my massage therapist put some little magnet things on me after my massage. One or both of these must of been the difference.

Ahhh to look forward to my next long run.......this is a joy for me :)