Welcome back to my Training Diary posts. It's been a while since I last did my last one, purely because I've had no races to train for and I've been SO busy with life. If you've still been keeping up with my blog, you'll know that since the triathlon, I've been on holiday, I've moved and I've been adjusting to a new commute and routine.

It's all been a bit of a struggle, I'm struggling with the routine of going from 5 minutes to an hours commute, I'm struggling with the motivation to do any sort of training whatsoever with it being so dark both in the morning and in the evening and I'm struggling to get my food under control and have been gaining weight which is causing my self confidence to plummet dramatically.

I'm trying to take things one step at a time, I'm finally used to the early mornings for commutes and I've started training again last week, so hopefully now I've started I can get into a good routine and figure out what days are best.

The only thing I need to get back in check is my eating. As much as I'm not looking forward to sharing my weight at the end of this week for December.. I wont dwell much more on that - you can look for the post at the end of the week.

THE RACE
If you haven't been able to tell from the title already, I'm doing the Saucony Cambridge Half Marathon on March 4th. I did it this year(you can read my recap HERE), I loved it(apart from the weather at the start) and got a PB! I'm hoping that maybe I'll get another PB next year on the half.. I'll hopefully have some decent training under my belt and we've got plenty of hills to help with running strength, so fingers crossed!

It's 13 weeks until race day, so I've got plenty of time to train, I just need to get my head down with it. Im sure once I get back into it, it'll be fine!

THE PLAN
Nothing is really set in stone with this, purely because I've just started running properly again just last week and I really need to figure out what days are best for training, my plan will change overtime and I'll be sure to update everyone via these posts.

I have a rough 'guide' for the time being, I'm gonna run twice a week to start with - I did that last week - I plan to increase it to 3 or 4 when I've got things to stick. Long Runs will always be on a Sunday - I can always fit in time to run at the weekend but want to make sure I get in a mid week run.

Apart from running, I'm commuting via bike to the station, though not much(its only 5-10 minutes), it's still something, especially on the way home as it's all uphill. I may sub the bike for my legs once during the week and run commute to the station too.

I want to fit in some strength training sessions, I'm gonna get the kettlebells/weights back out and save some YT workouts to a playlist so I can get back into the swing of things(pardon the pun). As for swimming, I'm not currently doing any and haven't joined a pool since I left my last one, I'm not sure whats going to happen with that for the time being.

I dont want to rush into things and try to do too much at once, I need to ease back into things or I'll probably burn myself out and stop completely, which doesn't bode well for half marathon training, it's not something I want to struggle with on the day.

So like I said, a very rough guide for now!

LAST WEEKS TRAINING
As I mentioned, I started training last week - I'm easing back in so here's a breakdown of what I did last week.. not much, but it's a start!

MONDAY to THURSDAY
Activity: Bike Commute - Distance 2 miles each way
For the most part, I'm bike commuting every day, it takes the least time. The brompton is pretty nippy - so it takes me 6 minutes to get to the station on the morning and about 10-12 on the way back with the hills - The ride home seriously gets my heart pumping trying to get up some hefty hills with my tiny brommie tyres.

FRIDAY
Activity: Run | Distance: 4.62 miles | Time: 46.05 | Pace: 9:59 min/mi
This run went better than I thought it would I hadn't expected to run as far as I did, it's the furthest I've run since July. I headed out with Phillip and we tried a new route(who am I kidding, atm most routes are new routes to us). I did get a little too hot on the run as I wore a jacket and whilst it was chilly at first, I get warm very quickly when running. I was happy with my pace on the run too. The first 3 miles were all under 10 minute miles with the 4th coming up just over.

SATURDAY
Activity: Run | Distance: 3 miles | Time: 31.42 | Pace: 10:33 min/mi
Hadn't planned going out the next day for a run but Phillip convinced me. We ran down towards the station but took a bit of a detour on the way to explore too and found some great hills that will do well for training though, they're down some dark side streets so it's not something i'd want to do on my own or in the dark so it would have to be either on a weekend or on a day I work from home so I can go running at lunch.

Pace was slower, but that's to be expected after a previous run day, my legs were sore from the previous days run too, plus the hills. However, at the moment, a run is a run and I did 3 miles so I'm still happy about that.


So, I've filled you in with the race I'm training for, a vague plan and my training for last week. I'll be continuing to do a weekly training diary leading all the way up to the half marathon. Lets hope I can nail the training!

Question: Do you find it hard to motivate yourself to run in the winter? What races have you got coming up?