Road to London 2009

[marathondan]

Mon 17th Nov: another late evening suburban 3-miler. After my previous success, I treated this as a tempo run, and knocked another 42 sec off my circuit time. Quite gratifying, but let’s not do too much too soon. Once a week only for this kind of thing, at this stage, else Mr Tweak will be paying a visit to Mr Hamstring.

Thu 20th Nov: I failed to make yesterday’s planned lunchtime run, so as penance I dragged myself out at 0610, having driven to work, for a half hour plod around the identikit backstreets of Bracknell. Not as bad as I feared, but if I’m going to do any meaningful training in the early hours of the morning, rather than just workaday trudging, then I’ll need to find some serious inspiration and energy from somewhere. But hey, isn’t that what this is all about...?

Sat 22nd Nov: late evening again, just short of 5 miles. My longest run for three and a half months. A crisp, starlit night necessitated full body coverage for the first time this winter. Had there been any breeze propelling the icy air, and a second layer would have been in order. I easily necked half a litre of water in the first two miles, but was dismayed to find that my usual halfway refill tap was out of order. Bigger bottle next time, and probably to be taken on each and every run. Hydration is something I’ve neglected since rarely venturing into double-figure runs over recent years. One of those little things that will soon become second nature again.

In the light of discussions above, I noted that this run was 4 sec slower than my target race pace of 9:10. A pretty meaningless figure for such a short run, but I'll keep an eye on that as the distance increases.

A good week: all missions accomplished. Next week: um, probably the same again.