April

[marathondan]

A great run to report, at last. My final chance to get a long one in before Reading, so I attempted two laps of my normal circuit, a total of somewhere between 9 and 10 miles. It was left until last thing on Sunday night, but it wasn't a bad night; a bit blustery and a few spots of rain, but still shorts weather.

Anyway, it was just like the old days - if fact, it was my longest run since FLM, 11 and a half months ago. I took it steady, water was supped, raisins were consumed, various parts of my lower anatomy got progressively stiff and heavy, but I plugged away and finished strongly, in just under the 90 minutes. It's so long since I've experienced that feeling of putting a long run to bed, and it was a real buzz. And then there was the payback: a roast chicken sandwich and a glass of wine that I had really earned. In truth, I do wonder whether long-distance running is a sensible thing to do to one's body, compared with cycling and swimming, but here was clear evidence of why we do it (and why 1x9 miles is better than 3x3 miles).

Today I am really, really stiff, but nothing I haven't experienced before. Doesn't help that my recovery strategy was basically go straight to bed, then sit in a car for 45 minutes.

So the week ahead should entail one game of football (tomorrow - if I can walk by then), a short one on Thurs or Fri, and then Reading on Sunday. The PB stands at 1:39 from the peak of my marathon training - that's clearly unachievable. I had thought that I'd be happy with 1:50, but I reckon anything under two hours is more realistic. But anyway, I 'm just heading out there to enjoy it. Funny how things turn out.