April 2012

[marathondan]

Week 15 of 18

OK, into the final stretch and the last big week. Most of which occurred in March, but let's not split hairs.

Wednesday lunchtime - back to the waterfront, under glorious spring skies, for 5 interval miles. It was three weeks since I'd run this route, and it was good to be back. Basingstoke Canal beats Sharjah Corniche I reckon, if only for the colours at this time of year. (Although to be fair to Sharjah, I was running in the dark there.)

Friday morning - 10 miles tempo around the field. Classic spring marathon weather, immaculate sky, a crisp chill in the air, the sun biding its time before unleashing a minor scorcher by mid-morning.

I managed an average of just outside 8 minute miling for the overall distance, which was a struggle to keep up at times. In such cases I try and identify what it is that's holding me back, the source of the discomfort, and in this case it seemed to be hamstrings and the copious amounts of sweat that were pouring into my eyes.

My feeling it that it will be the legs, rather than general fatigue, which will make or break my race effort. As for the sweat, you people with hair don't realise how useful it is for soaking up the acrid stuff. It really does get unpleasant after a while. So I think I might have to adopt the Phillips Odowu look this year.

Sunday night - the 20 miler, on road. I was slightly concerned that I wouldn't complete this, as I'd had a few back twinges during the day, and that's a region of my corpus that has featured unhappily in this campaign once or twice. But I stashed a supply of water bottles and Sainsbury's fruit jellies on the front drive and headed onto my regular circuit of just under 5 miles. The evening was pleasant, crystal clear yet mild, and I was to complete 15 miles in t-shirt before needing to layer up.

From the off however, I didn't feel particularly comfortable. Sometimes the legs are like springs and I can go 10 miles before I even notice I'm really running, but tonight for some reason I could feel every step through my joints from mile 1. Still, long story short, I made it. I was slightly tempted to can it after 15, but I wasn't in too bad shape and reasoned that this is the last chance to get serious miles in the legs. I did jettison the last half mile that was meant to take the total over the 20, but I reckon 19.6 was good enough.

The equivalent race pace was still a good half an hour outside my target, so that's a full minute a mile I've got to find somewhere on race day. I'm still very skeptical that I can do it, but my feeling is that I will blast out at the required pace and see how it goes. From the training I think my endurance level is good, so I think it's more likely to be knackered legs than the wall that's likely to slow me down.

Officially into taper now, the long one will be 12 miles on Easter Sunday.

Total miles for March: 107
Year to date: 325

PS - check me out on the front of the charity page linked below. The boys may have got a little carried away with my potential though.