This was the first full week of my 'real' life since landing back from Australia - back to reality you could say! My aim was to continue predominantly with easy paced running whilst focusing on reintroducing strength work into my exercise regime - after a period of about four weeks without any, I knew this would be enough of a challenge! 

MONDAY: I kick started my focus on resuming regular strength work with the latest block of the Strength and Conditioning for Runners session I attend. I loved being back, but I could certainly feel the short break I had taken from strength training - my legs were shaking at the end!

TUESDAY: despite it now being dark in the mornings and markedly cooler, I still had the urge this week to want to run early before work. Ignoring the summer heatwave, I have tended to run in the evenings, but it seems I may now have broken the habit! This morning was an easy 5 miles, I wanted no pressure on pace and unsurprisingly my body had bad DOMs from Monday's session! I made a tentative return to Body Pump in the evening - more pain!

WEDNESDAY: double DOMs meant for another easy paced 4.5 mile run.

THURSDAY: today was my birthday (27 on the 27th - I pretended that was a thing!) so started the day the best way I could think, with a sunrise run. After being disciplined and keeping my running very easy since the Sydney Marathon, I allowed myself a little treat today and pushed the pace with a 5 mile progression run. It still was not super speedy, but it was nice to challenge myself a little more. I went to Body Pump again in the evening which thankfully now was less of a shock to the system!

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: my love of parkrun meant I was excited to be running my home Lincoln event for the first time since my Australian adventure. I knew it was going to be hard work; it would be my first real speed test post marathon, combined with the fact my legs were still not feeling back to normal yet. My sister and her boyfriend were visiting and I was more optimistic about their chances of running good times than caring about what I could do!

For someone who openly suffers from the 'post marathon blues', the week following a marathon can often be as challenging as the run itself, and this time I had given myself the double whammy of also facing the end of my Australian adventure. Surely I was setting myself up for misery? However, I am pleased to report that even though this week has been an absolute whirlwind at times with a lot of travelling and emotion, I am sat here now feeling happy, relaxed and positive. My time in Australia and the Sydney Marathon itself was perfect, and whilst this sentence sounds awfully cliche and cheesy, the break and spending time with my best friend feels like it has somehow ignited something inside me, a spark that was threatening to fade before I left. 

Running wise this week has been a good week - and not because I have logged lots of miles! Those that know me and/or read my blogs will tell you that I am notoriously rubbish at rest, and my attitude to recovery is very much I know what I should be doing, but do not actually follow it! This time I have promised myself it will be different. I have tested myself this year, 3 marathons means I have almost been in a state of permanent marathon training since January, on top of all the other races I have completed in between. My body and mind have shown a new strength, but I am certainly not unbreakable. It will be hard at times, but this week has actually been welcomed and relatively easy to adhere to my own recovery goals...

MONDAY: Rest Day - the day after Sydney Marathon. It was instantly apparent my quads had born the brunt of the marathon stress as soon as I crossed the finish line on Sunday, and they were no better today. I was quite a comical site struggling around Sydney. Steps were completed one at a time with a kind of sideways action seeming less painful, and my left quad seemed to add the element of surprise by almost buckling from beneath me at random times as I was walking. It was an interesting final day in Australia!

TUESDAY: Rest Day - today began my mammoth journey back to Lincoln. Together with the emotion of having to leave Australia and saying goodbye to my best friend, I also had to manage my legs on the long haul flight ahead of me. I was on a plane for 25+ hours, and after the first journey to Hong Kong I was not moving great at all. However, I am not sure how or why, but when I got off the second plane at Gatwick airport in the early hours of Wednesday morning thankfully my legs seemed markedly improved. 

WEDNESDAY: Rest Day - after travelling through endless time zones in the air, I still had more travelling to endure on the train to make it back to Lincoln. When I finally arrived at my front door I was feeling tired and bedraggled and there never was a moment I even considered a run!

The blog is back – after three incredibly special weeks in Australia, I find myself once again at my laptop at home in Lincoln. It was hard to leave such a spectacular country, I loved it there, and saying goodbye to my best friend was equally as difficult, our parting embrace reducing me to tears as I really did not want to let her go. It was the trip of a lifetime for me, perfect in every way, and I ended the three weeks in the only manner I know how; the Sydney Marathon. This proved to be the absolute pinnacle of my Aussie adventure…
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If I was to blog about my entire three weeks ‘down under’ this would probably turn into an essay – so I won’t. However, prior to the marathon I had already had an incredible time in Australia, running around Sydney’s streets, exploring National Parks whilst chasing waterfalls, walking in the Blue Mountains, swimming with whales in the Pacific Ocean, meeting wild Kangaroos and getting close to Koalas, celebrating my 100th parkrun, completing endless breath-taking coastal walks… the list could go on. I had experienced so much and felt a freedom and happiness which I had not known for a long time. On top of this I was with my best friend, what else could I really ask for…

A marathon – the Sydney Marathon is what I asked to be added to that list. When entering the race many months ago it was always intended to be an experience rather than a race. With two marathons already under my belt for 2018 I did not need to run another 26.2 miles, but I wanted to. How could I turn down this chance? My time in Australia leading up to race day emphasises my relaxed approach to the race; I did everything I wanted to do, no fears of saving my legs for running or preserving energy levels, I must have walked miles and eaten a lot of Aussie chocolate! My days leading up to a marathon are usually consumed by race thoughts, however this time I was completely relaxed and had no pressure on myself to meet any goal – it felt quite liberating.

My training for this marathon had been challenging at times; at the onset I said I would not push myself as hard for this block, however I found myself doing so – I think it is in my nature. I was also tested by the scorching heat of the British summer, with early morning alarms getting me out on the streets for 5.30am before work and 20 milers logged carrying litres of water on my back just to survive. Aspects of my personal life also had an impact, as I have openly documented. At times I have felt emotionally drained, hurt and as a result just not myself. Training has helped me cope with this, and I have used the emotional pain to push myself harder, which is a response I would actually utilise in Sydney too…

The day before the marathon was an absolute scorcher, 30 degrees and almost too hot to do anything. I was starting to think my seeming fate of running marathons in heat would be continuing ‘down under’. Thankfully this was not the case, and on race day I woke to a cool and gusty morning, with highs of 15 degrees forecasted, which probably felt very cold to native Aussies! My best friend was also running the marathon and her partner the half marathon; he was due to start at 6am and us at 7am. This had meant a rather ridiculous alarm of 4am in order to eat and travel to the start, which luckily for us was only a short walk from my friend’s apartment. The race begins just underneath the Harbour Bridge and as we arrived at the start it was certainly apparent it was a fresh morning – even I was cold! The strong wind meant we had to seek shelter after waving off the half marathon runners, however I was happy with the conditions, very happy in fact, and by now I was just eager to get running.

Although I was putting no pressure on myself, I also respect the marathon distance and I knew I still needed to run with discipline. My friend would be quicker than me so I did not want to try keep up with her and then suffer for large parts of the race later on. We opted instead to run over the Harbour Bridge together and then begin our own races. As the start gun fired we wound our way up and on to the bridge; it was surreal as hundreds of runners ebbed their way across the endless archway, with the sun gently rising in the sky. I had a huge smile on my face, I loved the race already and I was not even a mile in. Leaving the bridge, my friend and I then parted, and I started my own race…

The first five miles absolutely flew by; I nearly did a double take on my watch when I saw the distance I had achieved already. I was just so busy taking it all in and enjoying the moment. I had passed a fellow runner wearing an Ipswich Town Football Club shirt, my football team and birth town, and had shared a few words with him about how poor our team is currently doing – I certainly did not expect that to happen during the Sydney Marathon! More significantly, I had also passed the 3:45 pacer, not intentionally, but I had caught them up and then found they were just not running to my rhythm. I also dislike the pressure clinging onto a pacer adds to a race, so was happy to lose the group. I fully expected the pacer to catch me up later on, but that thought did not really bother me at the time.
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A large chunk of the marathon course is completed in Sydney’s Centennial Park, with a few miles looped around its circumference. It was by no means horrendous, but I was pleased when we left and headed back to the main city as it gave me knowledge I had some good miles in the bag. The remainder of the course is set in central Sydney and it is not the flattest - my quads were telling me that! I feel I can be quite strong running on hills though, and whilst my legs hurt, I coped with the challenges. I could not quite believe the pace I was still holding at this point though, I felt good and with each mile that passed I thought ‘I can do a few more of this’ rather than starting to struggle. 15 miles passed, then 18, and before I knew it 20 miles were approaching.