It was quite a mixed month. 

About a month ago, I feared that I had injured myself. I was running 2 sets of 8 x 400m, and felt a sudden pain in my right hip. Not a good sign I thought, but I kept going and it disappeared.
Next day I felt it again, and it felt just like the ITB injury I had had 2 years ago. Oh no, I thought, and got out the foam roller and started rolling - I HATE that - it really hurts. Anyway after a few days with cautious running and plenty of ibuprofen tablets it seemed to disappear. Phew!
That reminds me - is there anywhere to get cheap ibuprofen tablets in Hungary? Neurofen is way too expensive. I bring back loads from England - they are about 5-10% of the price of Neurofen here.

I was running about 2 weeks ago when suddenly my watch went blank. It is a basic polar watch that measures my heart rate, and that is how I run these days in a race - I really need to know my heart rate, and I run around 90% of my max heart rate; any more and the lactate builds up too much. The local shop in Göd didn't have that type of battery, so I went to Auchan in Dunakeszi - they didn't have it in the main shop but recommended the kodak shop there. I couldn't see it there, but fortunately the assistant found it. Running without the heart rate is something I couldn't do these days. Well maybe I could, but I would get it wrong - too fast or too slow.

Another thing I had wanted was to find energy bars. I need to get used to these for the latter part of the marathon. Of course I want to try and survive with as little as possible, but if I run as fast as I want, I will use more energy than ever, I fear that I probably need a little extra. I found some aptonia protein bars and used 1 on my 29km run recently. It seemed ok, I didn't notice anything too special!

It has been a bit of a struggle to remain motivated sometimes. This plan has had me running almost every day, and sometimes I really don't feel like it. Also, before the half marathon, I really watched my diet - no drinking, very careful to cut sugary food and fatty food. I also stopped drinking beer for 2 weeks before the half marathon, and tried to sleep well. Thankfully the result with a new personal best surprised me and gave a good boost. Still 5 more weeks to the marathon and then I guess I'll relax a bit. In a way the new pb puts a little more pressure on me, as the race predictor suggests I should be able to run within 3 hours and 5 minutes - I am not sure about that....

The other thing I have done is to start with the power breather, and I have been increasing its resistance to make it harder and harder. I think that has made a difference - in the half marathon, I had no breathing issues, it was the legs that hurt and that is a good sign - I can improve them I am pretty sure.

So just a few weeks left, I need to get some better distance in, and put in some hard interval sessions. I hope I can squeeze in some more pace, and get that heart rate down a little so that I can run a good pace (4:20 I think) with the heart rate at or below 150. We'll see in some weeks I guess.