March

[marathondan]

5 weeks to go

A great week ticked off. After the fartlek, I completed a good-length tempo run, a shade over 9 miles in 85 minutes. Maybe I could push even harder on these "quality" sessions, particularly as I always have several days' recovery. Maybe this week - the distances will be the same.

Friday night I popped out for a 5-minute jog in the mask and hairy hands, as a kind of technical test. Peripheral vision was much better than expected, no problems there. The real problem is drinking, as the mask mouth is not quite aligned with my own. So I need to either adapt the mask a bit, or fashion a custom bottle with a straw, that I can top up at the race day water stations.

Then last night, a really stonking 18 mile long run. Everything felt good, no real sticky patches, and finished with apparently plenty left in the legs and the engine room. I think the flirtations with the Wall a couple of weeks ago were more to do with the onset of mini-flu - but necking half a pound of jelly babies this time round certainly didn't harm the glycogen cause. Once again, the policy of starting with spoken word audio and then switching to feel-good music worked a treat. With about 5 miles to go I invoked a hand-picked playlist - I was beaming and flying and doing all I could to resist playing air guitar while running. I can't pick a TdJ, so the full list is attached for your tedium. Every one a winner, IMHO, although I must point out that I got home before the last track, which might have provided a somewhat camp finale to my efforts.

This week: same again for the short runs, then 14 miles on Sunday night in full costume.