Nigel! I feel honoured - nice to see you back mate.
And SP - yes, thanks for reminding me of EG's memorable words. Definitely worth printing out*.
Day 2 was the first day of actual running in this campaign, and also the day I made my first mistake. I should say that I'm not by nature a creature of habit - I prefer variety to regularity, and chaos over order. Which is not to say I can't be organised when I need to, but I do like life to be a little different, if not actually
messy.
So when I woke up and found myself to be feeling really, really well, and that it was a beaut morning, I decided (unusually) to get my run out of the way early, rather than later in the day as I had "scheduled". So I wolfed a banana and drove off to a nice little 2.5km loop road (closed off to traffic) that I had wanted to try out. The plan was to do three laps, but within a few hundred meters I realised that in my haste I'd forgotten two important things. The first and least important was a small matter of the
wrong glasses. I have running glasses which are an old pair that clamp on to my noggin nice and tight. I was running instead in my everyday, lightweight titanium things which slip off my face at the first hint of perspiration. Annoying, but manageable (just).
But unfortunately I'd also forgotten to use, and bring my ventolin, and was already - less than a kilometre into the run - suffering an asthmatic, well, let's call it an
episode rather than a full scale attack... unpleasant and difficult even so. I managed to finish the first lap but I was operating on what felt like about one third lung capacity and really suffering so there was nothing for it other than to collapse back into the car and drive home for the necessary medication.
It's wonderful stuff this ventolin - a doctor told me once that as an effective disease-preventing, life-saving medicine it was right up there with penicillin. Certainly within a few minutes I was right as rain and jumped on the treadmill to finish my run, and finished it off rather well, too. So, an interrupted, but none-the-less completed 7.5km to kick off the training.
My training schedule is more-or-less a
novicey "plan to finish" one, consisting of just 3 runs per week for the most part, with a 4th added toward the business end. Mondays and Saturdays are generally the rest days, with 2 cross training days, which will be mainly cycling and weights. Kilometrage ranges from about 25km per week at the start to a peak of 62 in week 13. There's a little bit of hill work and intervals thrown into the mix as well, but not a lot really. Of course this is all rubbery and I fully expect to vary the schedule as I go.
I still find it daunting, especially when I f*ck up the first run, but I have a sense of "now or never" about this attempt, so it's head down, bum up and have a crack ...er, if you'll excuse the terrible pun.
Track du jour: none today, other than sound the of birds twittering, the hum of distant traffic, and the death-rattle wheezing of an asthmatic git who forgot his medication.
*
In fact I did exactly that, adding them to the bottom of my printed training schedule/calendar.
Adelaide Marathon Campaign - Week 1 of 16
