Mo’s Month in Running – July ’23

Finally having something to train for has given me a newfound purpose. I’ve settled into my half marathon training fairly quickly as the intensity and overall volume continue to pick back up, and am getting back into my stride with a combination of long runs, interval training and a lot of track sessions. 

I’ve never actively trained for a half marathon before, with the intent of breaking a specific time. If I were to compare it to my marathon training, I would say I’m finding it incredibly tough on the body. Although pace is relative, I’ve never considered myself a speedy runner and found that I was able to hold a fairly moderate pace for a longer period of time for the marathon.

The difference with half marathon training is that I’m working at paces that feel incredibly quick for my body, and I’m having to learn to hold them for a pretty long period of time too. My only saving grace is that if all goes to plan I only have to run for a total of 80 minutes come race day, compared to the three hours on my feet at the Milton Keynes Marathon. 

Mentally, I’m taking every day as it comes. I know that’s a really common saying and you can’t really take your days any other way. Even if you try and live more than one day at a time you can’t, but you know what I mean. It’s how I get through any training block.

To build a solid foundation, you have to lay one brick at a time – and the only way to ensure the final product is as polished as you could possibly make it is to focus on laying those bricks to the best of your ability. My bricks are my days, my wall is my training block. If I focus on today, and do my training to the best of my ability, then that brick is laid and I can repeat tomorrow. 

That’s not to say I don’t have the overall picture in mind and ignore tomorrow as if it doesn’t exist. But if we look at the whole staircase, it sometimes looks a lot harder to climb than if we just focus on our next step. 

Speaking of climbing, we climbed Snowdon last month – and boy was that tough. Adaptability is crucial, and of course life and work will get in the way of you having the perfect training block. But being able to weave in fun challenges like the ascent and descent of Snowdon multiple times in 24 hours is so important. It may not make for the most efficient training plan, but it definitely mixes things up and keeps it interesting!

My biggest learnings from July:

• Take every day as it comes
• No one cares whether you succeed or fail, and people are supportive by default
• Half marathon training is just as hard as, if not harder than, marathon training
• Snowdon is tall

There’s just over a month to go until I attempt the half marathon. I am continuing to post daily updates on Instagram, so follow along if you want to see how it’s going. In the meantime, check out all the cool challenges we’ve been up to this month on the Youtube channel!