Anyone for a catch up?

I've been missing my lovely little blog of late, missing thinking up blog posts to make the morning run go faster, then writing it up and sending it out into the ether. But before I start again, I'll explain why it stopped - then we can get back on with the fun stuff.

Unfortunately there's no juicy story behind my cyber disappearance. A rapid-fire combination of life events (a change - and change again - of relationship status; a long-haul move from north to south London; a new job and a huge bout of the running itis) meant blogging was suddenly harder than it had been before. But the good news is I was training harder than I ever had before for the Berlin Half Marathon thanks to an amazing running buddy turned coach who made sure I stuck to my sub-2 training plan whatever the weather (10 miles in the snow anyone?) and saw to it that I ran track. If you haven't ever been to a track session before, let me warn you - you will be overtaken by teeny tiny children. They will burn you up. And they won't even break a sweat.

Anyway, it worked - on 1 April I ran the Berlin Half in 1 hour 54 minutes and 35 seconds - a new PB and 9 minutes off my Paris time.

As amazing as Berlin was, I was very careful not to sign up for another race. Instead, I wanted to take the pressure off and rediscover why I loved running in the first place. Also, I discovered cheerleading, and it's my new favourite thing. Mile 21 of the London Marathon was an amazing experience - if you ran that day (or at Sunday's British 10k), I'm sure you won't forget passing through the Run Dem Crew cheer squad.

Which brings me to my next running adventure - training for the Amsterdam Marathon. But not running it. Here's the deal - my running buddy turned coach is my boyfriend, and he's running the Amsterdam Marathon in October. Because he was so brilliant during my Berlin training, I'd like to return the favour by becoming his training sidekick. This comes with it's own set of (selfish) challenges:

1. No bitching. This hasn't been going very well so far. Note to self: You cannot not burst into tears because I've decided I don't want to carry on with the 5 mile run when there's only a mile left. Yes, that happened.
2. Running when the plan says. That's Tuesday-Thursday, and Saturday. Even if it means getting up at 6am, or going out in the rain/sticky heat when all you want to do is sit on the sofa in your Kigu eating popcorn.
3. Pace. I can't run very fast, especially not for long periods of time. Luckily, marathon pace is a little slower than usual, and about my normal running pace, but I'm very aware of slowing my other half down. Nothing for it but to get faster, because:
4.  No pressure. As I'm doing this to help rather than because I'm chasing a PB, I want to enjoy it. And as I said, I want to fall in love with running again. So I'm running naked (no no, that would chafe) in terms of technology. No sportband or tracking apps for me.
5. Marathon training. IT'S TWICE AS LONG AS A HALF MARATHON.

It'll all be worth it in the end. And in the meantime, I get to drink a lot of chocolate milk. Win-win.