As I didn’t want to share two blog posts yesterday, my July review is a day late.

July definitely only lasted a week. At least we finally got to experience some hot, summery weather in July. The complaints about the heat did, however, get slightly tedious after a while. Since the beginning of 2016 I’ve been producing monthly summaries of my training. I’ve also shared some of my personal experiences as a running blogger who is spending the summer in Birmingham. Seriously, are PRs and brands actually aware that people and bloggers live north of Watford?

What worked well? What – if there were any – were my running related achievements? What would I do differently given the opportunity? I then like to look ahead to the month ahead.

Let the half marathon training commence

At the start of July I vowed to leave my run-walk-run obsession behind me, and I started following a more conventional half marathon training plan. This morning I completed a 35 minute training run without feeling the need to take any walking breaks. Hopefully by actually following a training plan and by ensuring I run my longer runs at a sensible pace, I’ll finally make it to the start line of a half marathon.

I didn’t complete any races in July and don’t have any races in the calendar for August. Gone are the days it was possible to enter an event in Sutton Park virtually every weekend during the summer. Although I do miss the whole race day experience and the medals, I have enjoyed running on my own at my own pace.

According to my Strava statistics I managed to complete 13 training runs during July covering a distance of approximately 42 kilometres. More importantly I successfully completed the first five weeks of my beginners half marathon training plan.

Running costs

Once again I failed in my quest to avoid making any unnecessary running related purchases…

At the start of the month I spotted some Salomon running skirts on TK Maxx – three days later my accidental running skirt purchase arrived in the post. Unfortunately, the running skirt is far too short, at some point I’ll get around to listing it on eBay.

I was devastated that my TK Maxx bargain didn’t fit – not such a bargain!

While on the subject of eBay, my second running related purchase was a £5.00 technical running t-shirt. During the recent warmer weather I spent £5.00 on a running vest from TK Maxx and earlier this week I found myself spending £30.00 on another running skirt.

Total running related costs £49.99! Opps!

Blogging experiences

For some reason I completely lost my blogging mojo during July – even writing my series of half marathon training review posts felt like a chore. I now have even more respect than I did before for bloggers who produce several interesting posts a week! Seriously, how do you find the time?

I received several quite random emails and still need to respond to a few of the more interesting proposals. I deleted several emails with the words “beach body ready” in the subject line. No thanks! I was also contacted by several health and fitness bloggers asking if I would be willing to host guest posts on my blog. Although the idea of hosting guest posts sounds great in theory – I’m aware that my blog posts are pretty repetitive at the moment – I’m just not sure I want to fill my blog with other people’s content. You clearly can’t please some people!

Writing this post has reminded me that I need to finish writing a couple of product review posts. Has anyone seen my camera?

Looking forward to August

So far my training for the Great Birmingham Run has been going well *touches wood*. My left foot and right knee both appear to be coping with the current level of training, it will be interesting to see what happens when my weekly mileage starts to increase. At this stage I’m feeling positive.

I’m really looking forward to completing the next four weeks of my training plan, and I’ll definitely continue to write weekly training updates during August. As I don’t have any races planned until September, I’d love to make it to Walsall Arboretum parkrun.

Finally, I’m determined to not give into the temptation of TK Maxx et al during August. I’ll need to replace my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 16 trainers before the Great Birmingham Run so I’ll need to save some money!

Bloggers, have you received any really random press releases recently? I declined the offer of featuring a press release on the World Pole Sports Championships 2016.

Why are trainers getting so expensive? The RRP of a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 16 trainers is £114.99. I can see why people might think running is too expensive for them.