February

[marathondan]

7 weeks to go

A slightly disappointing end to the month. Two consecutive weeks in which I missed my short training run, due the usual time pressures. At which point the training drops below the line from less is more to less is less.

Sunday night saw a 16-miler on the cards. It was a long time since my successful 8 mile tempo run on Monday night. The result was a hard slog. There was a disturbing lack of steel in the legs from around 10 miles onwards, and I was struggling at the end. In my defence I was tired; plying my system with strong tea before the off, and rolling home around 11pm when I should really have been in bed. It’s possible that I was also skirting the lower reaches of the wall; certainly my carb management strategy (two small handfuls of raisins) didn’t cut the mustard, and needs to be improved.

Still, allowing for a loo break (an advantage of running 5 mile circuits – you’re never more than 20 minutes from home) I came in at 4:05 race pace (in normal garb) so no huge cause for concern. I’m also still carrying the tail end of a cold.

I just checked last year’s entry for the same run – an advantage of doing the same thing year on year, and really the reason why I bother to log this stuff. While that was slightly more successful, the reported leg-pounding was all to familiar: “It became clear to me that it’s now all about the legs. Stamina-wise I was 100% comfortable, but from around 12 miles I could feel every step passing through my quads and hammies. Not stiff or damaged, just every mile piling a bit more soreness on the transmission system. So the real effort was overcoming that… let’s call it discomfort at this stage. Race day, I know, will bring a final hour of pure burning in those muscles.”

But one thing is clear – time to pop up to the loft and break out the shiny new Asics. My transmission system needs all the cushioning it can get.

Costume-wise, as a higher primate, I think the natural thing to do, to cover my nakedness, is to don some clothing. I think adding some running clothes (charity vest, shorts) over the costume will detract a bit from the non-hairiness of my monkey limbs. I understand that waxing is becoming more socially acceptable among adult male gorillas these days. Also it will assuage my guilt slightly over running in such a thin costume, after having promised a “full” gorilla suit. I don’t want to have to redo this bloody project because afterwards I feel that I didn’t do it properly.

TdJ: Green Day, Church on Sunday (an all-time inspirational fave), narrowly eclipsing Sir Brian of May’s touchpaper-lighting opening chords on One Vision.

88 miles banked for Feb, out of a planned 97. March should see well over the ton, then it’s taper time.