February 2011

[marathondan]

Week 11 - 9 weeks to go

Friday morning saw a rare opportunity for a daylight long run, so I grabbed it while I could. Three laps of a farm track / suburbs circuit, plus a mile round the block to finish and make up the requisite 15 miles total.

It was hard going. I felt low on energy, and at the 10 mile pit stop I fell upon the jelly babies like a man possessed. I'm a firm believer in the in-race carb strategy, and I need to continue to think about it more. Next week I'll try flapjack squares.

At least this run removed any traces of complacency I might have had that successive marathons get any easier. After you've completed one and are basking in a month off from running, it's easy to make light of the training and the race-day effort, but just completing one in a respectable time remains a pretty stiff challenge, at least for the likes of me.

This run took me through the full mental cycle:

1. (Around 10 miles onwards) I really don't like this, why the hell am I doing this, I could just give up.
2. (Around 12 miles onwards) I've done this before, I can do this, just keep going.
3. (After I've finished) I did it, I faced the challenge head on and I worked through it.

There we have it: running = life.

Marathon pace was still the wrong side of 4 hours for my liking, but there's little I can do about that (apart from run faster, duh?). The priority now is to... um, well, I suppose it's just to finish the training plan to the best of my ability. That's what I've always done in the past. There doesn't seem much point trying to focus on this or that, just get out there and bank the miles.

See attached for my new personal motto.
   

Sunday night was 7.5 miles tempo, although my so-called tempo pace left much to be desired. In my defence the legs were a bit stiff from the 15 miler, but I can do better than this. After the initial drudge of getting out of the door, it was good to be out, in light rain. And I do prefer evening runs. On Friday I had to creak around the house for the rest of the day. Tonight I could just shower and collapse into bed.

Meanwhile, costume painting in my loft studio continues apace. Whenever I'm outside now I find myself acutely sensitive to the wind speed. I think possibly the only worse costume I could have chosen for a seafront marathon is a giant kite. Oh well.

27 miles banked for the week.