Half way through already

I took a bit of a step back from my weekly training updates after I completed my Charity Challenge as I wasn't sure how interesting summaries of my weeks would be after that point. The results of my reader survey (still not to late to register your opinions and requests - just click here) suggest you kinda liked those and since I'm certainly still spending a large portion of my time outside of work exercising I thought I'd start bringing them back alongside the event and kit reviews.

I'm actually 9 weeks into a 19 week training plan for my second marathon, Bournemouth in October, which I signed up to under the influence of peer pressure and post-marathon euphoria. It doesn't feel like I'm 9 weeks in; it's been a slow build up and interwoven with long weekends away, house moves and so on. If I think too much about the fact I'll be running a marathon in 10 weeks time I get a bit scared, so I just think about the next week's worth of sessions, pull on my trainers and get on with it. I think it's helping that I have a good amount of residual fitness from the Spring. I'm feeling fitter than I've ever felt and the events I've taken part in for fun recently i.e. run without a time in mind, have helped to renew my enjoyment of running.

As usual I seem to have signed myself up to many other things including two triathlons prior to the marathon (more about that next week when I will be accepting comments on the levels of my stupidity) so I'm not just running. In addition I have two long weekends and a study weekend to work around - aye aye aye! Now I'm in full flow a week's worth of training sessions look a bit like this:

• 1 x  strength/gym/PT 
• 1 x swim focusing on front crawl
• 1 x bike (hoping to increase to two)
• 3 x run (1 track/speed, 1 tempo, 1 long)

I tend to do my swims in the morning, before work and have developed a habit of dropping in to Waitrose on my way to work to pick up a free skinny latte with my MyWaitrose card as a bit of a treat. This week I swam on Monday (600m), struggled through an 8 mile run on Tuesday, had a PT session (treadmill intervals and weights) followed by 30 minutes on the stationary bike on Wednesday, self-inflicted a half marathon on myself yesterday and have squeezed in a home work out of press ups and so on before I set off for a weekend of camping in the New Forest (no training, just a few walks, a few halves of ale and campfire food - can't wait!).

New vs Old (6 months old)

I went out in a pair of new (but same) trainers last night and gave a running rucksack I got recently a second try. I'll do a full review on that soon.

I think I'm finding training in the summer easier. Although there's the heat to contend with the lighter evenings means my long runs don't need to be confined to the weekends and I have confidence to explore a little more. Getting up on a dark morning, finding motivation to go out in the dark after work and battling with rain, snow and winds on well trodden routes was not enjoyable. What's the general opinion - do you prefer summer or winter training?