Madrid minus 11 weeks.

[Riazor Blue]

Eleven weeks do not sound too many to my ears. 2 1/2 months sound much longer.

Another week, another 58Km under my belt. One session of fartlek and one of 800m series. Gosh 2 quality sessions in one week. For the last marathon in San Sebastian I was lucky to be doing 2 seesions per month. Time will tell if it's doing any good or not.

Which brings me on to today. 1000 metre series today. Jogged 2km to the harbour wall, then 8 reps of 1000m at an average of 4'15" per km with 2 minutes rest between reps. 2km jog to finish.

Before San Seb, I mentioned to a friend that with a bit of luck and lots of support from the crowds, I may be able to get close to 3 hours for a marathon. Judging by how hard those reps were this morning I'm a long way away from 3 hours. Perhaps 3 hours 20 minutes is possible.

Talking of series, I don't know how closely Runner's World in Spain follows the one in the UK, but over here there's an article on series, it suggests 2 series per week, one for shorter distances and another for longer ones up to 5km, I suppose I could incorporate some of these sessions into my training, although the schedule is geared towards improving ones half marathon times. Perhaps if I upped the mileage on the non-series days it would be OK.

I was shopping earlier in Carrefour, a hypermarket chain over here - France aswell. They have one of those drinks rucksacks in their cycling section. I couldn't work out the capacity, 2 litres perhaps. It costs 27€, a tad under 20 quid. Does that sound a good price? and more importantly, has anyone used one of these? I must admit I'm tempted for the long runs, but worried that it would rub too much on my back.