And don't forget to keep those donations coming to www.justgiving.com/alan-wood thanks guys!

Its a little while since I last wrote anything, so i'll give a quick update of progress over the last week. Didn't do too much last week after the Grantham ultra, just a steady 5km on wednesday. Saturday was the Grindleford Gallop with Viki and Jo, a hilly 21 miles through the peak district with 300ft of elevation change. The weather was kind, and the scenary great so time passed quickly, I was pretty pleased with my time of 3hrs25mins. I was also testing out my new kit, a pair of saucony trail shoes and a camelbak, both worked really well, although I got a few blisters having not worn the shoes in properly first. The next day I even managed to do another 11 miles off road up to the eccup reservoir along the meanwood valley trail, a good weekends training.
So far this week i've taken it pretty easy, went to the gym yesterday and i might go out for a run this evening too if legs feel up to it!

So, this weekend gone was the first big test in the training for Iceland...my first Ultra marathon. The route took me from just east of nottingham to grantham along the old canal, for a total distance of 29.3 miles. The weather in the morining was pretty much perfect, about 6 degrees, calm and sunny. I set off steadily and fealt pretty good for the first half of the race. After about 18 miles I began to tire quite seriously, although strangely the pain in my arms was far worse than in my legs. I kept pressing on, refuelling with energy gels at the 4th and final checkpoint. At this point my brain was going a bit foggy and I couldn't remember if there was 4 or 5 checkpoints. I knew the last one was at 9 miles to go. I remember thinking that i'd never finish if there was more than that to do, but thankfully a quick glance at the route map told me I had about 6 miles left. My now the pain in my shoulders was excruciating, and I had resorted to running with my arms crossed in front of me to ease the pain. This atracted the attention of a couple of the passing runners, and I chatted to a couple of them for a while, which helped pass a few miles. Turns out that these guys are reeally insane! One guy had already run 80 miles that week, and was training for a non-stop race between birmingham and London in May, a total of 145 miles!! Another girl was doing 10 marathons in 10 days, these guys are mad I was thinking!
Finally the buzz of traffic told me I was getting close to the main road and the finish line. I came off the canal and finished the last half a mile in agony! I crossed the line in 25th place out of about 100 in a time of 4hrs 40mins, pretty good for a first effort, although most of them were running back the next day, which at that moment I thought was beyond me. Suprisingly within a couple of hours I fealt fine again, but by then we were on our way home. Maybe i'll do both days next year!
At least now I know that I can run a good distance, although iceland is 5 miles longer and significantly more mountainous!
Time to start on the hill training soon i think.

Ok, time to catch up with the blog!
Last sunday was the sleaford half marathon-a good bit of training under race conditions. The weather was a little cold and windy, but the course was relatively flat (it was in Lincolnshire!). The only real difficulty was the 2 mile section down the viking way, which was pretty tricky with all the mud. I didn't feel too great during the race, having a bit of a sore throat following a night out on the friday. Saying that it went ok, with a race time of about 1.39. Not a P.B., but respectable nethertheless.

Since then its been a couple of gentle gym sessions this week prior to my first big test in the build up to iceland...my first ultra! On saturday i'm (attempting) to do the grantham ultra marathon...its only slightly longer than a marathon (29.3 miles), and is completely flat, but its the furthest i'll have ever run, so i'm a bit nervous...there is even an option to run back on the sunday to make it nearly 60 miles in 2 days! Not sure about that one! I've also ordered some trail shoes and a camelbak, hopefully I should be able to try them out over the next week or so.

Wish me look for saturday! I'll probably be hobling all next week!