After running 17 races last year as a complete beginner, I am now training for my first Half Marathon on the 13th May 2018.

After two weeks struggling with malaria, I returned to training with some walking and easy walk-run interval sessions. But just as I was starting to feel myself again, I caught a cold. I guess my immune system was quite low and with kids just having started back at school again, it was to be expected. But still… ggrrr!

Week 5:

Mon – Sun, 29th Jan – 4th Feb:

Monday was my first day back at work from sick leave and I was sent for a week’s assignment to Windhoek, Namibia! At first, I thought the timing couldn’t have been worse but it turned out to be exactly what I needed – lots of work but I had a lovely hotel room to myself, room service if I wanted, and no whining kids! We stayed in a beautiful boutique hotel with a really nice restaurant downstairs that even had some gluten free dishes on the menu. Although not much, I’m glad I managed one walk during my stay – my colleague (and lovely friend) joined me for a walk downtown when we were on a break. It was great to see the town on foot and I felt so refreshed afterwards. Stats: Walk, 38:25 min, 2.82 km.

Week 6:

Monday, 5th February: Outdoors, Walk-Run Intervals, 20:03 min, 2.44 km

Back home again, I was eager to get back into things. I set off for a run at 20h00 with Ditiro and was glad my coach had me doing walk-run intervals as it was tough getting back after having been out for so long. My legs felt good!

Tuesday, 6th February:  Unplanned Rest Day

There was an open day at my son’s school so unfortunately I had to miss my evening gym class. But I was a little bit glad as my throat had felt funny all day.

Wednesday, 7th February: Outdoors, Walk-Run, 30 min, 3:69 km

Still had a scratchy throat but decided to risk a run with the whole family in tow! Ditiro and the kids hopped on their bikes and they cycled while I ran. It was the first time the kids had been out on the sidewalk by the big road so they were over the moon! Kaia was a pretty good pace maker for me and I don’t think I have had so much fun on a run in a while. It was a brilliant experience for all. As she gets stronger on the bike she may even be good company for me on my longer runs!

Thursday, 8th February: Unplanned Rest Day

Sore throat had transitioned to a full-blown cold so decided to take a break from the gym and rest.

Friday, 9th February: Rest Day

Saturday, 10th February: Blogging Day

I finally wrote my race recap from my 16th race last year! If you love race recaps as much as I do, you can read all about it here! I loved this race because it was in my husband’s home village so although it was terribly disorganised, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Sunday, 11th February: Outdoors, Run 41:03 min, 5 km

My nose was still running like a tap, but my chest and throat felt good. So after a 2-hour nap in the afternoon, I drove out to the Agricultural College with the whole family for a cycle and run! I loved it so much on Wednesday, I figured, “Why not do it again?” As we drove out there, it started raining and there was a spectacular rainbow. But thankfully when we got to the place, we just had to wait 5 minutes before it stopped raining. Ditiro stayed back with Thiwa while Kaia accompanied me for the whole 5 km. She is becoming such a pro on her bike – while I was huffing and puffing, she didn’t even break a sweat! It was a lovely run – my coach had said I could break for a walk if I needed to, but I managed the whole 5 km running!

I might not be going very fast, but I am certainly putting in a lot of effort if this chart from the GPS watch is anything to go by!

Mileage last 2 weeks: 13.95 km

Mileage this training cycle: 44.32 km

Gym Classes last 2 weeks: 0

Grade: B- (I’m quite pleased with what I achieved. Disappointed that I got a cold but glad that I was able to assess myself and stick to all my runs. I think I could have done a bit more walking in Windhoek and maybe this last week done something like pilates on one of the days I wasn’t feeling too good)

To keep myself accountable I am linking up with the lovely Courtney from Eat Pray Run and as usual with the inspirational Holly from HoHo Runs and fabulous Wendy from Taking the Long Way Home! Be sure to check out their blogs (as well as others on the link-up) – you always walk away with a lot of knowledge.