Aug / Sep – The Road To ?

[marathondan]

The new training plan has begun. Not sure yet where it will take me – probably Henley and Marlow half marathons, hopefully all the way to London 2007.

Towards the end of the year I’ll pick up the Hal Higdon Novice marathon schedule. My only concession to being an "experienced" marathoner (marathoneer?) is inserting an extra long / long / step-back cycle into the last three weeks. Until then, I’ve drawn up a weekly mileage plan, starting from a piffling 4 miles a week. The final weeks of the Hal Higdon plan are ten times that distance. The idea is to gradually build up my running commitment from barely-noticeable to full-on-obsession.

Friday 18th August

The first entry on my 06-07 log. My usual nocturnal 4.5-mile plod around the North side of Maidenhead. This was my first outing for 12 days, and my previous three months’ weekly average stood at 3 miles per week.

Unusually, I was mp3-enabled, with Nicholas Parsons and Green Day the unlikely combination on my playlist. As has happened in the past, concentrating on the audio meant I was less aware of my pace, and my body told that I was running a little too fast. Still, the smiles generated by Just a Minute, followed by some hard rockin’ to bring me home, resulted in an enjoyable run, and I even managed a sprint finish.

But a look at the stopwatch showed that it was my gut, not my ears, that had affected my workrate. A good two minutes slower than my usual time for this circuit. Still, after effectively a three-month layoff, whaddya expect?

Saturday 26th August

The same drill as last week. I forwent the audio entertainment in order to give complete focus to my athletic performance. The result – another minute slower than last week. Truly I am back at Square One – physically, at least. Mentally, I’ve done this all before – so I anticipate that this training programme (I don’t want to insert the "M" word just yet) will be much less a voyage of discovery. Having said that, I’m sure that Running will have plenty of lessons to teach me – I have no idea yet what they’ll be.

It was tough going to start with – as often happens I didn’t really feel warmed up for about half an hour. I cling to this trait as evidence that I’m built to be a long-distance runner. (Other indications tend to contradict this.)

But I was glad I went. I’ve recently read Russell Taylor’s The Looniness of the Long Distance Runner, and one bit of wisdom that stuck with me was his assertion that afterwards, he’s never regretted going for a run, rather than taking up one of the several easier options that always present themselves when there are miles to be banked. My variation is this: faced with a number of activities, be they leisure or jobs, what better use could there possibly be of the next 45 minutes than going for a run? With a few obvious exceptions that I don’t need to detail, the running should win every time.

August summary

Runs: planned 2, completed 2
Miles: planned 8, completed 9
Verdict: from tiny acorns…