Trotted along to the local gym this evening for my induction session. Yes I know, but it’s there on my list. There. My list of Things To Do Differently Second Time Round. Use the gym. I don’t like these furtive adult playgrounds much. They’re surreal and disturbing. How do you reconcile the superficial intimacy, the laying-bare, with the lack of communication? Apart from the Hits of the Eighties CDs, the only sounds are the rhythmical groans and crashes; you are rarely disturbed by the music of conversation. Here we find a worrying sub-culture of silent, bug-eyed obsessives; dripping elitists, sweating off their stresses and spare-tyres, inching towards Adonis status with a wild eye. And I may have opted to become … …
Author: andy
Hurrah! Against all my assumptions, I managed to run my 3 miles today without any aches, and without stopping. Bloody freezing today. So cold that my plans to nip down the road to see Bristol City play QPR were scuppered by a frozen pitch. The postponement of the match at least allowed me to uncoil gradually this morning, and to go for the run at my leisure. Much of the morning was spent admiring the Christmas-card-like scenes outside. Thick white frost coated the paths and the bushes in the front garden, and we even had a robin hopping along the window sill at one point. High noon came, and the deed had to be done. A rare appearance of the … …
I find myself in Sussex, for probably the last run of 2001. It’s another bad experience. My diet in the last 2 days has been dreadful. Left alone in the house for a day or two, I slip into naughty schoolboy mode, hoovering up crisps and chocolate and polishing off a bottle and a half of wine on Friday evening. Yesterday I went to the match and feasted on a hot dog and later on, celebratory fish and chips. So it was no surprise that 5 or 6 minutes into today’s run, I started to feel that ache creeping up my ribcage again, where it stayed for the next 5 miles of miserable stop-start. I am now quite certain that … …
The chest pains return, which would seem to blow my alcohol theory. However, they reappear after a two-day Christmas binge, so it remains likely that there’s some connection between the aching ribs and over-indulgence. Today was mild. I went running in the twilight: perfect running conditions. I felt strong and capable and confident, until 8 or 9 minutes in, when the pain began its familiar, slow spiral upwards from beneath my lowest rib. It teases for about thirty seconds, then it just sort of bursts through the top of my chest like an exploding rocket, and I have to stop. A great shame, as this evening I felt strangely powerful and somehow, sort of, ‘erect’. In my running style, that … …
No run today. After yesterday’s splendid Christmas luncheon and mince pie tragedy, I find that I’m 3lbs heavier this morning. No point in being depresssed about such trivialities. I deserved a day off yesterday, and I reassure myself that weight so easily added, will be just as easily shed again. [Distant sounds of barely-suppressed mirth.]… …
4 miles before breakfast on Christmas morning. What’s the world coming to? I’m knackered. Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow. Weighed myself, as normal, when I got up. I’m now 211lbs, precisely 25lbs less than when I started, on September 23rd. This is a very welcome seasonal gift to myself. Happy Christmas!… …
This week calls for a reshuffle of runs. The plan I’m following calls for a rest day today, then 3 miles, 4 and 3 for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday is going to be busy so I run today and tomorrow, then rest Wednesday, then run as scheduled on Thursday. It means running 4 miles on Christmas Day – that is certainly a first. Today’s run was good. A straightforward 3 miles. Up to the top of North Lane and back – exactly 3 miles. For the first time I thought about speed today. Too early to think about it too much. Endurance and stamina must be more important at this stage of the game, but I was curious about … …
Today I ran 7.06 miles without stopping. 91 minutes of continuous running. Blimey. They are two near-unbelievable facts. I need to say this: that if someone like me can do this on his 28th run, just 62 days after starting running, then anyone can. When I began the pre-marathon schedule, I couldn’t run for 3 minutes without bashing my head on the Grim Reaper’s sickle. The very thought of running an entire mile was exhausting. Today’s run was the second ‘long run’ in the 18-week marathon training programme. What seasoned practitioners call, slightly mischievously I’m sure, an “LSD run”, which (I think) stands for long, slow distance. Last Sunday’s task was 6 miles, though it was a run ruined by … …
Supposed to be a rest day, but after missing 2 days following the calf problem, I needed to try it out today, and get back on track. Ran 3 miles. The calf ached, but not seriously enough to stop.… …
Only a week into my programme, and already I find myself in a trough. After last week’s fate-tempting sense of triumph, it was perhaps inevitable that on Sunday’s long run I’d get the chest pains again; that on Monday I’d unexpectedly go down with crisps-and-chocolate-fever, and that just a mile into this morning’s run, I’d suddenly get a sharp stab of pain in my left calf, and have to limp back home. I’ve not been very good about warming up and warming down, and doing stretching exercises in the evening in front of the TV, and glugging water all day, and all those other things that everyone says you should do, and which seem very easy, but that in fact … …