Running past 8

The goal for this week was to clock 8 miles.  The Kirkcudbright 7 mile run has given me a lot of confidence that I was back on track and so I have been doing regular exercise in order to keep up the pace.  It's hard to fit long runs in but fitting smaller runs and cross training in the week and finding a protected time to get a long run in has become a priority.
The aim is to decide at the beginning of the week what the exercise plan is for the coming week and work out with Rick when we do our long runs.  He is back in training now as well, thankfully having recovered from his injury, so there is a big of negotiating to do.
So last week I managed 2 miles of forest trail on Sunday mid day (the dog loves these kind of walks), a lovely woodland walk with 13yod on Monday evening - photos below don't do it justice.

Tuesday evening I had a little run down by the river and the rest of the week got really busy with on call etc so didn't get anything else done.  However, Saturday morning was the time set aside for my long run and my running friend and I ran a lovely 8 mile route which took in road, trail, forest with plenty of hills.  The plan is to do a lot of the training in the hilly forest trails as the marathon I plan on doing is quite flat and the hill training should make for good preparation.  I have found a half marathon in November in the Highlands which is of course quite hilly so that would be a good training run as well.  

I was really pleased to be able to tick off eight miles.  It was definitely a case of miles in the legs and miles in the head.  Was a hot day by Scottish standards and I really felt the heat.  Glad I had taken my running belt with two wee bottles of water!! 

Stay with me - it's hard!!