Off Season 2018-19

[marathondan]

Miles in the bank have somewhat dropped off a cliff edge after the marathon. Not entirely unexpected. This week has been half term, and most of my aerobic jollies have come from gardening - quite basic and heavy stuff, as I'd done little to keep the garden under control for the last two years. I did however manage a pleasant slow woodland trot early in the week, a good Marathontalk episode (457) on the audio. Today I rounded things off with a rare trip to Parkrun, bookended with two miles travel either side, making a handy 7.5 mile mixed pace outing. Next weekend I hope to get back to the weekly run to Windsor. The short version comes in at about 7 miles, but is fully on road - not something I should be doing a lot of. The long version is around 10, 7 of which are on the Thames towpath and only 3 on hardtop. One of those per week should keep me honest, if I can keep up the routine.

I've mentioned that I'm thinking about trying to get under 4 hrs for my next marathon challenge, as I have two more years to attempt it as a VM40. It's tempting to do it just to use the thread title "Project Breaking 4", but I'm starting to think it would be a bad idea. In 2012 I missed 4 hours by just two seconds. That was an attempt to break a PB set 7 years earlier in my first marathon, and ended up well wide of the mark. Next year is 2019, so in aiming for sub 4 I'd be trying to better my mark from... yep, 7 years earlier. It's a nice idea, but maths and biology aren't on my side. This was brought home again today when I put in a tidy Parkrun, but it was still 100 sec or so outside my PB. A PB which I might never beat. So, that's not a final decision, but I think Project Breaking 4 might be a recipe for heartache.

Then again, what do they say...? Isn't it something like "aim for the stars and you'll detonate on the launchpad reach the moon"?