I'm bigger and bolder and rougher and tougher...

I did my 2 hours 15 minute run today in the XL vest. My route was a undulating/hilly one and I chose not to do the mile run around the village first and just got straight stuck into the first hill. I felt really good and wondered if the chia seeds did have a part to play. I'd had some in a smoothie for breakfast and had my usual 300ml of water before leaving the house.

The first 3 miles are all uphill (be it sharp or gentle inclines) and I just powered through the lot. At 5K I had an "unwanted" 100ml of water... I really wasn't at all thirsty. The run took me down a nice hill at around 4 miles and then up a right sharp one at 5 miles... to my surprise I did the mile in 9.45mm pace but the hill was done at sub 9mm. A mistake... it took me literally ages to recover. Just as I was pulling myself together, I realised that I was running so much faster than I anticipated which meant I had yet another hill to climb before I was due to turn around at 1 hour 7.5 minutes. I was gutted. Turning around to come home was a bit of a "thank God" moment, however I was going through a bit of a tough patch here. I kept running until I got to 8.75 miles when the ache at the top of my left leg was too much and I had a 2 minute walk break to try and ease things off. It worked, and was probably the best thing I could have done as the rest of the run was done fairly comfortably.
I drank 200ml at 10K and a further 100-200ml at the 8.75 mile point when I walked. By the time I'd got to 20K, I really wasn't thirsty so didn't have anything more to drink for the rest of the run. (Coming home with nearly 300ml of water left in my bottle).

In the last mile a song came on my iPod, and I had to laugh as I thought... this is now my song! Thinking back to just a couple of months ago and how I was getting nowhere with my training compared to now, I thought the words were fairly apt...

"I'm bigger and bolder and rougher and tougher, in other words sucker there is no other, I'm the one and only dominator" :-)
Todays' run was my first sub 10mm in my XL vest. It wasn't a breeze (unfortunately), but I'm getting there slowly but surely. Today was an unofficial half marathon PB... hell, it was better than Graemes' PB... however, he's on for a massive PB next week I think. Here's hoping I can carry on the trend for next weeks race!

And the chia seeds? Well, so far so good!