Faux training camp

Well, I'm back from a week with family in the south of France. They live about an hours drive from the Pyrenees and as a result the terrain is quite hilly, so all my runs were hill runs. I manage to do an 8 mile progression run the night before we travelled, and despite being the first run since my half marathon race the last 2 miles at marathon pace ended up being at half marathon pace. I really must focus on being controlled at my chosen race pace when I have loads of energy to go faster. Only a couple weeks to learn this now.

I ended up doing my 5mile easy on Friday and my 5 mile pace on Saturday- I managed to maintain the slow end of my marathon pace despite the hills, which bodes well for Halstead once I have extra energy from the taper.

I was fairly apprehensive about a 20 miler in this terrain, especially when my cousin drove me around the route. There are some hills that I just couldn't manage to run and took easy, mainly to avoid injury and burnout- didn't want to run the 20 miler perfectly to find that I couldn't race in 3 weeks time. I sweated a LOT even though it was around 14 degrees, and certainly lost salt- I did feel this for a few days after, so I will need to be sharp after Halstead to rehydrate properly.

On the whole run i only came across 16 cars, 4 cyclists, a tractor, but no other runners! Mile splits are as follows and there are some amazing views:

Mile 1: 10:37
Mile 2: 10:25
Mile 3: 11:24
Mile 4: 11:21
Mile 5: 11:52
Mile 6: 10:11
Mile 7: 10:01
Mile 8: 9:44
Mile 9: 9:56
Mile 10: 10:11
Mile 11: 10:46
Mile 12: 12:02
Mile 13: 10:53
Mile 14: 10:58
Mile 15: 10:42
Mile 16: 10:57
Mile 17: 10:32
Mile 18: 10:21
Mile 19: 10:21
Mile 20: 10:52
Mile 20.17: 9:40

Summary:
Time: 3:35:43- this is fast as I stopped so often to take pictures and gels etc
Distance: 20.17 miles
Avg Pace: 10:42
Elevation Gain: 1680ft
Elevation Loss: 1654 ft
Min elevation: 1296ft
Max elevation: 1966ft