I'm officially at the half way point for training and whilst not everything is going to plan, Im still very happy with my progress and it appears to be a lot better than previous training for half marathons that Ive done in the past. A few tweaks here and there to my training and I think I'll be well on my way to a good half!

Monday
A really good swimming lesson this week! We did 8 lengths of backstroke to 'warm up' - it kinda just makes me really dizzy and disorientated - then the rest of the duration(about 25 minutes) was a continuous swim of whatever stroke we wanted, I obviously choice Breast Stroke as it's my strongest stroke and knocked out 1200m which I was pretty happy about. I probably should have pushed myself and gone for Front Crawl instead!

A photo posted by Laura Dryden (@laura_fat2fit) on Jan 23, 2017 at 2:19pm PST

Tuesday & Wednesday
Unplanned rest days - but didn't have access to a shower in the morning for a run and I had no time, nor did I want to have a bath in the morning before work(I HATE having a bath!). I put of and put off running in the evening after work until I ran out of time and didn't bother going out on both days.

Thursday
Strength Training - I FINALLY got round to dusting off the kettlebells and getting a workout done since I still didn't have access to the shower in the morning. I did a beginner kettlebell workout from Fitness Blender and it was brilliant. I'm not sure why i put off the kettlebell workouts but I'll be making them a regular part of my routine now!

A photo posted by Laura Dryden (@laura_fat2fit) on Jan 26, 2017 at 1:30pm PST

Friday
Surprisingly, I didn't seem to be sore in the morning as I expected after my KB workout the night before, so after putting off a run(I've had zero motivation to run all week!), I finally headed out the door for 1.6 miles in my lightweight shoes. Ran a whole minute faster(9:30 min/mi) than my normal 10:30min/mi pace I've been doing lately.

After sitting at a desk most of the day, I was getting super DOMSY by the evening.

Saturday
Holyyyy DOMS! I could hardly move when I got out of bed in the morning but I promised I'd ferry Phillip to parkrun. I put my running kit on and was going to attempt to run even though I was so sore but obviously had the option to drop out if I couldn't take it.

The run start was horrendous, but It eased off very quickly and my legs just felt heavy. Deffo not even close to a PB at 33:10 for a 5k, but I was happy to have another checked off the list.. and a run for that matter!

Sunday
I knew I couldn't miss a Long Run, my legs still felt terrible but we headed back out to Brandon to hit the trails for my long run this week. I did 9.2 miles, Phillip ran with me for the most part and sometimes ran ahead to get in some extra miles at his pace.

A photo posted by Laura Dryden (@laura_fat2fit) on Jan 29, 2017 at 4:32am PST

The end of my run was a little sobby. My shoe had been rubbing my foot, most likely due to not having the proper footwear for trails and a continuous change in terrain and there was a massive long hill at the end of the run which was horrendous to run up. I was full on crying my way up the hill, which ended up with me gasping for breath! I was such a mess by the end of the run.

I was proud of doing a 9.2 mile run though and we finished off in the cafe to have a Sausage and Egg bap for our post-run breakfast. YUM!

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So all in all, it's been an 'OK' week I suppose, I could have done with a run on either of the unplanned rest days I had instead of 3 runs in a row at the end of the week.. and will also bare in mind to do a KB workout earlier in the week so that DOMS is gone by the weekend for parkrun/long run days!

I also missed a turbo session this week and an extra swim(I was told off for not swimming more during the week, as I'm losing money if I don't go at least twice, oops!)

So, hopefully the week ahead goes better, I've no long run this weekend as it's the week of my 1st race of 2017! Im excited for London Winter Run this week!

Im linking up with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC again to share training diaries with other runners! So check out the linkup on her blog! :) Also, if you want to catch up on my other training diaries, you can find them all HERE.

Question: Have you ever done a trail run? Do you enjoy them?