Only 6 weeks left and getting back on the wall

Well there's only 6 weeks left to the BIG DAY; The Brighton Marathon on April 6th where I find out if all this training has been worth it. Training has been going well and I had my best run so far on Thursday. I took the day off from work and did a 17 mile run from Littlehampton to Worthing, along the coast with a friend. It was nice and flat with beautiful views. If I can do 17 miles, I can 20 miles and if I can do 20 miles, then I'll be able to push myself to do 26.2 miles on the big day. A few more training runs to go before then though! How have you been getting on with yours? Any tips you'd like to share with me?

The threshold training I've been doing to build up my endurance has also been getting tougher. Recent sessions have consisted of 4 x 6 minutes of running at effort level 7/8 with a 2 min jog in between, 5 x 5 minutes with a 1 minutes jog in between and a really tough session of 10 x 3 minutes with 3 minutes jogging in between. If it makes me a better runner and more able to do really well on marathon day, then I say, bring it on. Plus it's always really good to test and push yourself - you in with me?

Well what else have I been doing apart from running? As well as my regular strength and conditioning training, I've also been doing quite a lot of climbing. I had a break from it just before Christmas and over the festive period but it felt good to get back onto the wall at the Adur Outdoor Centre in Shoreham. That's where I climb quite often, it's a good indoor smallish wall. There is a new wall opening up at Withdean Stadium soon which I'm very excited about as it's near where I live so nice not to have to go all the way over to Shoreham for a climb. It's being run by a company called High Sports who also have another wall over in Crawley at the K2 leisure centre. I'll still go over to Shoreham sometimes to climb though as it's nice to mix it up and climb at different places. I've recently been on climbing days out to the White Spider climbing wall in Surrey, very close to London and The Reach Climbing Wall in South East London. Both were great days, the White Spider Centre is fantastic and one of my favourite places to climb. It has so many fabulous climbs, all different levels from easy to really tough. The Reach is really good as well but not as good as White Spider in my opinion. It does however have a great cafe with lots of homemade cakes, gorgeous toasted baguettes, sandwiches, pasty's and even does some more substantial food as well. Only negative bit is that it doesn't cater for gluten free people which I always find a bit frustrating and means I've often been tempted to be naughty and eat a little gluten and wheat on the side. The White Spider Trip was organised by the women only Vertigirls climbing club, which I'm a co-director of and the Reach trip was organised by the Adur Centre, with more trips planned to look forward to.

I've been climbing now for about 4 and a half years and really do love it. I'm not the best climber in the world and probably never will be but that's ok with me and the enjoyment I get from it is enough. I've been climbing in quite a few places in the UK, such as the Lake District, Cornwall, Portland, Dorset, winter climbing at the Cairngorms and Derbyshire, otherwise known as the Peaks to climbers. I've also been up to the Roaches which is another part of the Peaks. Overseas I have climbed in the French Alps in a beautiful place called Ailefroide which is on the Italian border, close to Turin and also been on several climbing trips to the Czech Republic. If you love climbing you've got to try them!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great healthy week ahead. I've got a full week of training planned but resting next weekend as I have the Steyning Stinger half marathon which is really exciting. It's a trail on the Downs and is supposed to be really tough, very hilly and a bit daunting but I'm really looking forward to it :)

Bye for now,

Leonie x