Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 5 #ThisGirlCan

This week we haven't had any medical crises so I have managed to fit more of my marathon training schedule into the week! I would like to do some form of fitness every day in February in order to keep me on track and make best use of my gym membership.

So on Monday I headed across to the leisure centre for a 30 minutes on the cross trainer to kick start my week. Its such a great feeling to get those endorphins pumping after a stressful weekend!

One of my difficulties has been getting a longer run in each week. So on Monday I plotted an 8km / 5 mile route using the Run Go app so that I had a loop of the right length.  The route combined hills and level bits for variety and I listened to an audiobook on the history of England to keep me going:

I think I was pleased with myself:

As Wednesday is my son's running club I was out for a couple of kilometres of stop/start running. Just enough to count as exercise but not a proper run!

Yesterday I decided that I needed to work on my stamina. The training programme said an easy 40 minute run but instead I aimed for a non-stop 5 km (something I hadn't managed yet this year!). Again I plotted a route on Run Go, so that I had no excuses for cutting it short, but tried to avoid hills so that I could plod on. Very pleased that I not only didn't walk at all but a) kept a steady pace b) ran my fastest 5 km of the year so far (still not back to my PB from this time last year...):

My end of run grin was even bigger:

Today I have been to the cyclone spinning class at the leisure centre for some cross training. Boy is it hard work "and up another quarter turn.."

All of the hard work this week has paid off with a decent 1.5 pound weight loss! Yay. So its onwards and downwards with the weight and upwards and faster with the running... Let's see what happens tomorrow at Parkrun..