Toronto Running Club run

It must be said that my preparation for the snowdonia marathon or SNOD as its often referred has hit something of a plateau. I was going great guns at the start of September getting in some fast local 10 and 15 milers on a hilly road course. However a week in Canada on business has somewhat seen me stop in my tracks.

Not altogether perhaps.... as I previously blogged I did get in a 25 miler along the Ottawa River which I needed due to lack of long mileage but I'm not sure how much good it did me. Since then I did one further run with the Toronto Running Club last Wednesday. This was great as I ventured out of the city and into the suburbs. The club runners were very welcoming and I would certainly recommend the idea of hooking up with local running clubs wherever you find yourself.

I met new people, got a local eyes view and saw areas of Toronto I would never have seen otherwise. Plus the beer and huge burger afterwards was ace! There were 3 Brits in the club running that night and quite unbelieveably one chap called Bob who was in his mid 60s and had run a 3.27 marathon 3 years prior was flying to England in 3 weeks time to visit a good friend... And where does this friend live..? Just 2 miles up the road from me in Leighton Buzzard! How insane.. So I have invited Bob to join our local LBAC club run on the Wednesday he is over. And perhaps Toronto and Leighton Buzzard could become the most unlikely of sister running clubs... How cool would that be!

Back to the training though and with one thing or another I haven't been able to string together a series of solid runs which build my speed, strength and endurance one after the other. Instead I feel like I'm merely hanging onto my current fitness, IF that. What will this mean for SNOD in a few weeks time....? Well firstly despite the far from ideal build up I'm still gunning for a sub 3:30 time. I've no idea if this is possible but I'm committing myself to it 100% So pretty much a boom or bust scenario awaits me!

Perhaps with another week of good running and a solid long run this weekend my confidence may increase. We shall see.... But time is running out...