Week 3

[Antonio247]

Week 3. 5th-11th April. My weight is 81 kg. I´d like to be under 80 at the marathon but I find it hard to lose one more kilo. I should eat less cakes and more vegetables and fruit. As I am on Easter holidays and I´ve started the easier weeks until marathon day, this week should be comfortable. At the weekend I´ve got to do 12 miles nearly a half marathon, which after last Sunday´s 20 miler shouldn´t be too hard but it won´t be a piece of cake either. I start feeling the anxiety of the marathon, looking forward to doing it but also a little scared of how I will finish.

Tuesday. I started at 10 pm from Almadrabillas park. It was a nice evening. The temperature indicator flashed 17º Celsius. There weren´t many people at the sea front and I saw very few people running today. I went along the sea prom at a fast pace for my level doing it in 15 minutes sharp, 90/120 seconds less than usual. I continued along the road to the petrol station where I turned back to do the way back getting to the start point in 40´33´´. Then, I continued towards the port where there were a lot of cars waiting to get into the ferry to Nador in Morocco and in minute 51, I came back. I stared at the full moon while I was humming a song of Víctor Manuel, who is a singer-song writer from Asturias in northern Spain- which says “Luna llena, invisibles son los hilos que manejas. Luna llena, siempre envuelta en un halo de lunática tristeza”. It could be translated as “ Full moon, invisible are the threads that you handle. Full moon, always covered with a halo of lunatic sadness”. Well, life is full of happy and sad moments. I got to the start point again in 62 minutes doing around 9 kilometres in all.

[Antonio247]

Thursday. I started at 10 am. It was a cloudy morning but it wasn´t windy. I went along the sea front in 16´45´´. Then, I continued towards Costacabana. It started to drizzle but after a few minutes it began to rain but it lasted only a few minutes and later the sun was shining brightly. There were many runners and cyclists along the sea front. By the way, I saw a group of cycletourists on bicycles loaded with bags heading towards Cabo de Gata. I got to the palm tree just opposite the university in 41´45´´. I continued as far as the place where Almería half marathon turns back. It is around 6.5 kms away. It took me 45´45´´. Then I decided to go back doing several one-minute breaks to see if I “lose” much time. The first walk break was when I turned back in minute 45 - 45 seconds. The second one-minute break was in minute 61- 45 seconds. I usually go more slowly in the second part of the run, but this time that I was doing one minute break after only 15 minutes, I felt stronger. When I was getting to Almería promenade, I met a friend of mine who is also a teacher of English. His name´s Juan Pedro. He was in his girlfriend´s car and called me because I hadn´t seen him. He has taken part in several half marathons doing them around one hour 45-50 minutes. I told him a few days ago that he could come to Madrid marathon and he told me in the car that he would like to take part, which would be great. As we had been talking for around one minute, I decided not to take the one-minute walk break. Then, I continued along the sea front arriving at the starting/finish line in 92 minutes, thirty seconds, doing around 13 kilometres. I felt quite well today especially in the second part. I think that as Suzie says it is very good to do walk breaks to feel better and avoid injuries. I´m trying to find how often I should have a walk break at the marathon. Probably every two kilometres and a half, which involves that if I went at a 6 minute pace,it would be every fifteen minutes. As I´d go on walking, I´d do one hundred metres walking instead of one hundred sixty-six metres plodding. In time, it would mean 428 seconds more in the marathon, that is, seven minutes. I think it can be worth taking the one-minute breaks since I´ll feel better at the end, I´ll avoid injuries, I won´t suffer the wall so much and I could even make up the time lost since you feel stronger after walking and the fact that you have mini objectives such as every 15 minutes makes you feel less exhausted and go faster for a few minute

[Antonio247]

Saturday. I coudn´t go out for a run yesterday because it was raining all day long. This morning it was raining again but I left at 11.30 when it was just drizzling. I started at Almadrabillas park. I went along the sea promenade getting to the end of it in only 14´8´´, which is the fastest time I´ve done it. It´s not bad taking into account my level and the wet surface. It must be 2.5 km long. It started to rain more heavily although a few minutes later it stopped. It is good to run in the rain since we don´t know what the weather will be like in Madrid on 25th April. It may be hot, cold, rainy. The Spanish proverb says “En abril, aguas mil”, which could be translated literally as “In April, waters thousand”. There, it is likely to have some rain in April. In fact, here in Almería where it doesn´t rain much, every Easter there are one or two rainy days so that some processions have to be put off or suspended. After getting to the end of Almería sea front, I continued towards Costacabana, getting to the palm tree just opposite the university in 37´ 20´´. Then, I continued towards Costacabana, which is near the airport. By the way, I saw the plane to Birmingham and the one to London taking off. Then, I got to the beginning of Costacabana sea front in around 48 minutes, completing until minute 50 and doing around 7,5 kms. I felt quite well so I tried to run a little faster than my marathon pace. I came back by car since Carmen and Víctor were waiting for me at Costacabana sea promenade.

[Antonio247]

Sunday. Today I had to do 12 miles. I decided to follow the same course of Almería half marathon but going along the sea front instead of Cabo de Gata avenue. At seven I had two bananas and later a cereal bar. Then, I left and went to the stating line leaving at 8:10 a.m. It was a bit cloudy. The temperature ranged between 10º Celsius at 9 am and 13º at 10 am. I did the first kilometre in 6 minutes. Then, I went to the sea front where I did my first walk break in minute 10. I´d decided to do a walk break after 9 minutes but I forgot the next one and I did it in minute 22. The other walk breaks were in minutes 32, 42, 52, 62, 82, 92, 102, 112, 122, 132, 142. I forgot to do the break in minute 72. Then, I went up Rambla Federico García Lorca getting to km 5 in 34 minutes and then I went down that broad avenue to get to Almadrabillas park in 55 minutes. There, I met Felipe, a teacher of English I´ve already mentioned in other posts, and asked him to go with me. We went on and met my brother, Jose, who was waiting for me at the sea front and came with us on bicycle. Felipe told us his trip to Burgos and Valladolid with his wife and three daughters at Easter holidays. They had a wonderful time visiting Atapuerca in Burgos where there are remains from the prehistoric culture. They also visited monuments such as Burgos cathedral, the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos where Gregorian singing is done by the monks, towns and ate very good food and drank good wine from “Ribera del Duero”. He turned back after five kilometres because he was in a hurry to get some “churros” and take her mother to church. We continued along the sea front to the university getting to km 14 in 95 minutes and got back where the half marathon turns back in km 14.5. We came back along the sea front having a wonderful view with the sea on the left and Sierra de Gádor and Sierra de los Filabres on the right covered with a lot of snow. We crossed river Andarax with a lot of water from last days´ rain. After crossing the bridge, we got to km 18 in two hours six minutes and later km 20 in two hours 20. We got to the stadium in two hours 26 minutes but we continued to the starting line and completed two hours thirty minutes doing around twenty-one kilometres in all. I did some stretching and ate a cereal bar and drank some water as I had done in some walk breaks.

It is interesting to do the same course of a half marathon you´ve done before because you remember a lot of things that happened when you were taking part in it. It´s incredible how different things can be. When I took part at Almería half on 25th January, I´d never have dreamt of doing it alone without taking part in a competition, however, now after doing twenty miles last Sunday, it looked nearly a piece of cake. I didn´t feel too tired and I think that doing walk breaks makes me feel better and I don´t think I lose much time since I can make the time lost up by going faster when I start running again and when I´m going to stop for the walk break. Besides, I think that my muscles and joints suffer much less, so I can avoid injuries.

[Antonio247]

Summary of week 3. I´m feeling quite well after the peak weeks. I had to do 46,4 kms but I did 50,5 kms. However, I couldn´t go cross-training. I´m looking forward to going to Madrid and running a marathon after 15 years without running it. I´ve just run two marathons, Madrid in 1988 and 1989 but it is said that if you haven´t taken part in a marathon for five years, it is as if you had never run it. So, I can consider myself a false beginner, similar to those who have once studied a foreign language but haven´t practised or studied it for a long time and they must start from scratch.