Half Marathon training progress 2

Today I had my first medium run of the week, a 10km run. Very proud of the progress so far because of two reasons, today I felt like I could push further and faster and I broke the 1hour bench-mark (set by previous timings).

During the run I couldn't help but think of a recent phrase I read from the book "Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich, in which it said and I quote; "The life of a college athlete is hard", and I must admit even being an ammeture athlete such as myself it is difficult to keep giving your 100% at both sides of one's life. Admits all the studying and training sometimes the mind and body just want to shut down and not take a single step more, but that is the sacrifice which you have to be willing to do, to take that one more step and convince yourself that the finishing line is near.

To add onto this training in this kind of weather, cold, windy and gloomy it takes a lot of sacrifice to take that one step but it only lasts for the first one or two kilometres, then it's complete and utter freedom. You even start to feel shielded from the cold air hitting you. You only feel it at your extremities and especially when it hits your lungs but even that goes away especially when you reach a tricky or challenging part on your route.

I am starting to see some considerable progress. Will keep you updated

Mark

Half Marathon training progress

Well as most of you know I started training athletics a little while back. The first recollection of me running is when my father was at his peak of his training sessions usually involving long hours spent at the athletics track in Marsa. As a child I used to just run one lap and rest a while, then do another and repeat. I even did a sprinkle of fun runs which later on I might upload some pictures but little did I know that I might someday be following in some giant footsteps.

It really sparked into my mind when I saw my dad finish the 2008 half marathon after a huge gap, and with all those mixed emotions of pride and a little jealousy, I thought I should do this!

And so I had started training for a 10km run at first and the famous president's run. Setting small goals for myself and pushing the limits slowly. All was well and I had managed to finish the Marsascala 10k race in a good time 50:34, which for a novice and a first time race experience was pretty great.

And so this year I decided to set a more ambitious goal, something I had been wishing and dreaming to do for a while. The half marathon.

You never really notice how good it feels to run until your mind just switches off and starts to wonder off in so many different directions away from what the body is feeling.

Truth be told, your body does scream to stop especially during a long distance run, its constantly fighting you telling you "NO WAY AM I GOING TO TAKE ANOTHER STEP!", an athlete's job is to just to ignore that and push on better and even faster. Trust me the reward for only stopping at the finishing line is even greater!

Will keep you guys posted on how the training progresses =) almost half way though and feeling excellent =D

Bring on feb 26th!

Mark =)