RackOfftober

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Choctober? Seriously??

OK, well this comes with apologies to anyone who is actually giving up chocolate for the month in order to raise funds for charity. A noble cause, I am sure. Never the less I have to bemoan the fact that, not content with the Ocsober campaign urging us to forsake alcohol for a good cause, we are now being urged to give chocolate the flick as well. I fear someone will soon invent a witty slogan designed to have us abstain from caffeine too in October and the tenth month will suddenly become the month of death. The thought of inhabiting the earth with sullen, desperate, 'deprived of all the fun stuff' fund-raisers, or worse, the gloating, radiant-faced types who insist that it's all completely wonderful (and who shortly thereafter suffer agonising death at the hands of enraged onlookers), well, it's all too much for this humble beer-swilling, chocolate munching, caffeine-mainlining heathen to take.

So fear not, for there is no way I am giving up any of those things. In fact, quite probably the opposite will happen, as instead I ramp up my running which of course only serves to give one a raging thirst and a need for carbohydrate-loading. A slight advantageous boost can also be acquired through judicious caffeine intake, and so ... well, I think you can see where I am going with this.

This does rather require a reasonable base mileage of course to justify such an indulgence of restorative goodies, but this is actually happening. In fact I'm feeling rather good about my running just at the moment. Week two of my Almeria campaign has just completed with a third run for the week, a nice tempo session which followed a hill climb run two days prior. Whilst my total mileage for the week still sits at a modest 23km, they were honest-enough workouts and the percentage increase in weekly kilometres run is in keeping with the recommended 10% or so which prevents overuse injuries. And with plenty of time in the bag before the big race, I am confident of a steady increase in form and fitness in the coming weeks. Indeed I am really enjoying it, hence the refusal to participate in anything designed to restrict my enjoyment of such necessities of life as alcohol and chocolate.

So anyway, October is off to a good start with a steady, solid tempo run. I'm still a few weeks away from my goal of regularly running 35 - 40km per week, but well over 100km is the goal for October. After that I should have a solid base from which to start hitting those higher targets.

Touch wood, of course.

And pass me that Kit Kat, please.