19K Before Breakfast

Beachy Head Half Marathon 2026 Training Block - Week 7/11

This was supposed to be yesterday's run. After Wednesday night's hill repeats I hadn't recovered enough - my legs felt heavy and I was just lacking in energy. The original plan was for a 19km hilly long run, but by yesterday it was becoming fairly obvious that trying to force that session wasn't going to be particularly sensible - especially with a 10K race coming up on Sunday.

So I pushed it back a day, flattened the route and decided that today's run was going to be about getting the distance done without digging too deep. That meant a mostly flat route along the seafront and promenade. There was just one small problem: getting 19km in before work meant a 5:45am alarm.

I didn't slept well knowing I had to get up that early, and it was still properly dark when I set off. There were very few people around and, for the first few kilometres, it felt like I had the streets of Worthing pretty much to myself. Then the sun started coming up.

The sunrise was spectacular, with early morning mist hanging over Marine Crescent and across Widewater Lagoon in Lancing. It was one of those mornings where being out ridiculously early suddenly seemed completely worthwhile.

The whole point of the run today was to keep things controlled (Runna always moans at me when I go too fast) but gradually the pace crept up anyway.I started around 6:28/km and finished the final kilometre at 5:22/km. That wasn't really part of the plan.

By the end I'd run my second-fastest ever 10 miles, and the most encouraging thing was how comfortable it felt. Had I carried on for another couple of kilometres, I think I would have been in a very good position to beat my half marathon PB. But that can wait for another day.

There were a lot of positives to take from this one.

Fuelling was spot on. Two SiS Beta Fuel gels, 500ml of Tailwind and another 500ml of water seemed to be just about right. My legs felt strong throughout, and my heart rate stayed largely in Zones 2 and 3. Breathing remained controlled even as the pace gradually increased.

The only slight concern came at around 17km when I thought I might be starting to develop some GI issues. Fortunately, it never really developed into anything, but it's something I'll keep an eye on.

19km done. Strong legs. Good fuelling. Controlled effort - and a spectacular sunrise thrown in for free.