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Canberra Marathon Training - Week 5 of 16
I awoke with a start. For once the alarm was, well, alarming. Why was it even set? Surely I didn’t have to work today? And Sweet Jesus, the room was gently spinning. Had I been drinking? Oh, well yes… of course. I clicked off the alarm and placed a foot on the floor to stop the room revolving and slowly the fog began to clear. And Good God – in what was rapidly becoming a very blasphemous morning I realised Mrs MLCM was not in bed. Oh wait, now things were coming together – she had gone to the gym early. And that meant that today was Saturday and … oh hell … I have a long run scheduled. Twenty-four head pounding kilometres, as it happens. Shit.
I found a bottle of water by the bed and glugged it down. If I was going to run anywhere I’d be needing some serious rehydration. Rather reluctantly I got out of bed and began to assess things. I was hung-over, but not too bad. Last night’s soiree included rather fine wines, so I was dehydrated and a little unsteady, but not suffering the head-hammering effects of cheap booze.
The plan had been to run my usual 18km route through Lane Cove National Park and add another 6km along the highway at the end, however the lateness of the hour and the warm, humid conditions suggested a gentle treadmill run might be a wiser option. I dutifully trotted about filling water bottles, finding my brand new box of Tri-Berry Gu gels and finding a dressing for my still badly-chaffed thighs. I placed a large fan in front of the treadie, set it to ‘high’, plugged my earphones into my three-hour selection of definitive running songs and hit ‘Start’.
I’ve always said that running with a hang-over is no bad thing, as you quickly sweat out the worst effects of it, and as long as you drink plenty of water you very soon begin to feel fantastic. It’s almost cheating, it works so well. True to form, after about 30 minutes I was feeling very good and settled into a good rhythm and plodded along at a respectable pace, intent on completing the task at hand and reaching my goal of 50km for the week. To do so, at this pace I had to run for a solid two-and-a-half hours, longer than I’ve run since the Sydney marathon last September. However I was confident of finishing and so bopped along happily to my grab-bag of musical allsorts.
Erm, well, that’s pretty much it. There’s not a great deal to write about really – the run did get hard in the last half hour, but by then I’d ramped up the pace to possibly a little faster than was necessarily wise on such a humid day, but I got there. The job was done and I felt both smug at a job well done and justified in not attempting to run outdoors, as it was by then quite hot and far too muggy to contemplate a hard run outside.
Of course training for an April marathon was always going to be hard – sticking to a tough marathon schedule during the heat of an Aussie summer is a big ask, particularly when you sleep in and have to run in the heat of the day. It does however make getting up early in the morning rather easier than in the grips of winter, so swings and roundabouts I suppose.
Despite using a fan, I stepped off the treadmill completely drenched in sweat. Wet running shorts always equate to chaffing in my experience, and this was no exception. Although my dressing of the previous run’s chaffing worked well, I of course just ended up with chaffing in other regions. But then, if chaffing is the worst ‘injury’ I suffer, I’m happy to deal with it. And it must be said that so far, apart from occasional sore knees and a tight left hammie, I’m feeling good and injury-free.
And that completes week 5 of my 16 week training schedule. Just eleven more to go. These long runs are starting to get seriously long however. Marathon training really can be rather tedious, but I’m still focussed and keen and desperate for a good showing in Canberra.
Bring it on!
24.41km, 2h33m
YTD: 178.2km
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Jumpin' Januarys ... it's 2013 already!
