Wow, getting busy in here, isn't it?
Guess what I didn't do on holiday . Only one 8 miler (although that was rather harder than expected - sand is tough, isn't it?) and then many, many bottles of wine later remembered I was meant to be in training.
I've made up for it a bit since I got back, though: been out three times so far.
AJmum, I'm afraid I share your problem. Generally an empty bladder is essential for me before going out or, alternatively I have to find a big bush or a large puddle to run through - that was probably TMI, wasn't it? I find it's actually much less of a problem with long runs, because I'm going slower, so the impact of each stride is easier to deal with. I've certainly never had a problem during any marathons/half marathons.
HMC, if you want to add a bit of speed, well, it's time to think about - ta da - speedwork! Nothing fancy, you can just do simple intervals once a week until your 10k and it will make a big difference I promise. There's only one small problem they hurt. Not childbirth hurt, but the sort of red in the face, 'the engines cannae take it, Cap'n' sort of hurt. The simplest way to get started is with a short fixed interval (ideally around 200 meters but you don't need a track - distance between lamposts, or length of a short road, will do) and run it as fast as is compatible with maintaining life. Then turn around and jog back to the start and do it again. You can either build up the number of repetitions of this or, if you find it too mind numbingly boring, you can play variations with timing yourself. So perhaps you do one session of 8 x 2min fast with 1 min jog recovery between each, and the next week 5 x 4 min fast with 3 min jog recoveries. After a few weeks of this you should probably find that you are able to run your normal run slightly quicker but with the same level of comfort - it just improves the capacity of your heart and lungs so they let your legs do more effort for the same input.
I don't know if that's helpful, but welcome to my world of pain, anyway