Tour & Dopey Training

Tour training has taken a back seat lately to marathon training but now that Brighton is over and Dopey is now a definite it's time to get back to it.  There's only 72 days until the 52 miles in one week and 258 days until the 48.6 in four days.  Tired legs from Brighton are an opportunity rather than a hindrance and so although mileage was low this week getting to race Whitley 10k was a good insight into how it will feel to keep going back to race day after day.  I'm finding that it's getting a lot easier to push through the pain and keep going.  I checked out of quite a few races last year and started walking (I think because I put too much pressure on myself to get a fast time) but I'm starting to learn how to slow it down rather than quit all together.  It's hard during a race because you keep getting overtaken and you kind of want a sign to justify why you are going so slow but you just have to change your race priorities and run to finish rather than pb.  

Hopefully by the time the Tour of Merseyside comes around I'll be able to run all six races without walking (which is my main goal) and then maybe by January I can still run the whole of the marathon even after the three races in the three days before.  Hopefully I'll be getting my Runner's World Challenge training plan for Dopey soon so that I can start planning.  I'm doing a mock mini Dopey (parkrun, Cheshire Spring 10k and Milton Keynes half) back to back on the May bank holiday weekend and will be building back up to 50 miles a week ready for the tour.