It's the Easter holidays, and my first diary post of the year. That tells most of the story in itself. But this isn't a tragedy; things are starting to look up. Work -- which, 3.5 years in, I can't really refer to as my "new career" -- continues to batter me physically and emotionally. But I do feel I've turned a bit of a corner since Christmas, and am starting to get into something of a groove. Maybe after about 10 years I'll be quite good at it. Corner or not though, it's still very difficult to find the time and energy to run during the week.
But... it's spring. Suddenly getting out for a few miles sounds appealing rather than a chore. This is definitely a better time of year to dust off the cobwebs than November, as required by a spring marathon. I have my eye on an event I haven't come across before, the
New Forest Marathon. It's apparently been going for 35 years, which must make it one of UK running's best-kept secrets. Feeding the dates into the spreadsheet reveals that I need to be on-plan by the start of May. Which means the goal now is simply to get comfortable running three times a week, up to an hour at a time.
Going well so far -- pure junk miles, apart from the odd Parkrun, and once when I felt the strange desire to run a tempo session. Quite often I've headed out and felt like the motor is only running on three cylinders. Then I look down at the Garmin and remember that my marathon pace has dropped a full minute per mile over the last decade. So I do need to recalibrate my expectations somewhat. Then again, yesterday I posted my fastest Parkrun for two years. So those junk miles are slowly but steadily having a small effect.
Jan 21 miles, Feb 20, Mar 33. Year to date: 79
Very, very modest numbers. But the important thing is that they trend in the right direction.
PS - no fancy dress.
2019 - will one thread be enough for the whole year?
