Who is this Monster??

By now you all know by now, I have a husband who really spoils and looks after me ~ I could not ask for more or better.....

Well on Sunday after my run with the other ladies, I was in the shower when I saw him come into the bathroom with both my running shoes, bent over the bath and started cleaning them. He does the cleaning of my running shoes from time to time, but this day he decided my shoes needed a clean cause I was running my first Half marathon and he wanted me to run in clean shoes!!!!!

I'll be running in the Adidas pink and white shoes as they my road running shoes and the grey

Salomon are my Trail running shoes.

The route is on both Road and Trail.

I'm a little worried about myself....let me share and then you can tell me if you have had the same experience, if this is normal and my question is...WILL THE NORMAL ME RETURN??

I feel as if I've released a *Monster* within myself!!

This monster is so competitive....and its driving me nuts to be honest.

I'm competing against myself ONLY, against my GARMIN.

The day I decided I was going to run the Half Marathon and had a month to train, something happened, I went all out to complete this challenge I had set out for myself.

As I started training and working towards beating my PR for 5/6 and now 10km times ~ I feel as if every run I do has a competition within it. ( for me only )

I have to beat something...my pace, my time, my distance...grrrrr

I want to just run and not have a care in the world again, but right now it feels like this is how every run is going to be for me in the future....beating something!!!

Please tell me that after the Half Marathon I won't be doing this anymore and will find my running the way it used to be again....That what I'm experiencing right now is NORMAL.

My partner who is running with me says she has never felt the way I do when she has prepared for a race! She thinks I'm crazy and should start running without my Garmin.

Today my running partner and I set out for our last run before the Half marathon on Sunday.

We decided on a 10km distance.

I wanted to make sure I did the first 15 mins at a pace of 9.5km as my warm up and there after wanted to run the rest of the distance at 10 ~ 10.5km...( I went faster at times and had to slow down )

It was fast and I don't think I could do that pace for two full hours...so will have to make sure I run my first hour of the marathon under 10km per hour and then go faster the last 10km...

see here I am planning again, my partner says...JUST RUN...

I ran 10km in 59,42 mins...a new PR for my in 10km

Average pace 10.3

Max Speed 14.6

Burned 788 calories

HR 138 ~ 181

The way I see it, isn't necessarily the way you see it.

New Kettlebell ~ 10kg's ( 22 lbs )

My new Kettlebell arrived this morning, so after my indoor cycle I did an hours Kettlebell workout with my new 10kg ~ I love Kettlebell workouts and the heavier the more I can feel it working on my body....building the muscles..:)

The way I see it, isn't necessarily the way you see it.

Sundays Run and Weekly recap

The first photo is of my Sunday running group....one runner was not able to make it today, so there would normally be 5 of us.

The lady with the blond hair next to me is the one doing the Half marathon with me next Sunday. She is an experienced Marathon and Half marathon runner so will be doing this race to support me with my first Half. I think its very sweet of her, but know I could do this on my own as well, I do find I'm faster and better runner when on my own. I've set out a time I want to run this Half and she said I can go ahead if she cant keep up, I don't have to worry about her as she is not feeling that strong lately ~ but she has fire in her belly and I know will stay with me from the start to the finish...

The next photo is of my friend, Christine...she and I did our first official run together the beginning of this year. Since then Christine's been on holiday, and has been ill so has not had enough time to run, so with all that against her, she has not kept up with my pace in the running department, but she is very strong when I teach her Kettlebell...We only run together on our social Sunday run now.

Today's run was frustrating for me....I have not run with the girls that much the last few months so have forgotten how slow they are. I headed out thinking I would take it easy at around 9km per hour but once out I noticed their pace was around 7.2 - 8, so up the hills to stay with them, I walked. A few times i headed out on my own at a pace of 9km, only to wait for them a little later to catch up. When I saw our 5km time was 38.50 mins, I decided I had to get going otherwise was going to end with a very slow 10km pace.....at the 7.22km mark I could start running on my own as the others had taken another route home...I wanted to do 10, they wanted to run 6km....once we split I had to run....as fast as I could to try make up the time lost....I ran at a pace of 11/12 on flats and up the hills at a pace of 9.5km. I had to push as I could see my 12 km race time I was going to finish this 10km run in.....(1 hour and 12mins ) Thankfully I made up a little time lost...

Once my Half marathon is run I can relax with my running again and not focus as much on distance and time like I am at the moment.....I want to see improvement each time I run....and should have just seen today's run as a social fun run...but am mentally so focused I just couldn't.

I plan to run my Half Marathon between 9.5 and 11km per hour. I will vary my pace according to the road I'm running on the day, but I do not want to drop below 9km per hour. The Half marathon is on road and trail.....My goal is to finish my half within 2 hour and 15 mins....I run this distance the first time in 2 hours and 12 mins...but one just never knows what you feel like on the day so have lowered my time if it need be.
Weeks recap

Ran ~ Monday 7.75km, Wednesday 8.2km, Saturday 6.2km and Sunday 10km

Total a little over 31km for the week.

I taught one aerobic class on Tuesday

I toned with Kettlebell 5x this last week...Two full workouts and the rest Upper body and abs.

Trained a total of 10 hours

The way I see it, isn't necessarily the way you see it.