Yeah, ticking along OK thanks mate. Although I don't do streets any more - sticking to the local patch of grassland, mostly with the headtorch and occasionally with no shoes or socks. Popping out for an hour later; we had heavy rain earlier so it could be a mudbath.
One more week of warmup then I need to start throwing sessions in and increasing the mileage. This campaign will undoubtedly be the tale of the ankle though. After a 6 week layoff it was fine, but now I'm back to three runs a week it's nigglingly sore again when resting, although not noticeable when running. Will see how it goes and seek advice if necessary. I think I might try a full 1.5 miles barefoot tonight and see if the resulting stiffness when I get out of bed tomorrow drowns out the ankle issue...
Missed one run this week due to a flying visit to Dubai. Hung around in one of the city's Irish bars but didn't bump into Sweder. He was no doubt in his hotel watching Mo Farah videos in mental preparation for that blistering 5K...
Irish Village. Sampling the traditional local delicacies - boiled ham and cabbage washed down with Guinness. Distinctly un-Irish weather though. And not your traditional Irish village beer prices...
As promised, popped out for an hour or so last night, three laps of the green including the last one fully barefoot. I have to say, that lap felt the most comfortable of the three. It was a mild night, maybe around 8C at 10pm, so cold wasn't an issue. Will see how stiff the lower legs feel today, but so far so good. It was a lovely night with a full moon, so even with scattered cloud I had no need for the head torch. This makes me realise I'll need an extra column on my training spreadsheet - lunar phases. I can imagine that the full moon training weeks will be considerably more enjoyable than the new moon weeks.
I've been meaning to ask you Dan: as you train late at night, what time do you eat? Can you train with a full stomach? Do you sleep straight after? And does late night training ever affect your sleep?
Young kids = eat dinner about 5.30 pm. So my stomach is well settled by about 8.30. I normally go out sometime between 9 and 10, and leave one or two chores to do (e.g. making packed lunches) for when I get back, to wind down. So I'm normally in bed within an hour of finishing, which I think is good for recovery.
As the sessions get longer, both tempo and easy pace, I do find myself buzzing for longer, and it does get a bit harder to go to sleep. In which case I might settle down for a pleasant half hour on RC or the like before bed. But that might only happen once a week, so not much of a problem.
The other advantage I have is - having a similar hairstyle to your good self - I can shower before bed without needing a blow dry.
Missed my two midweek runs due to general Christmas hassles. This is the last week of warmup, the last week I can get away with a little slackness. Still, there's a time to push on and a time to conserve energy. Last night was a lovely 7.5 miles under a lightly clouded starscape. I checked the car thermometer as I went out around 9pm - a balmy 4.5C.
I was interested to see how I would cope with barefoot running in fairly low temperatures, but I also wanted to try a bit of running in flats. So after two laps in road runners, I switched to my top of the range running flats, i.e. an old battered pair of imitation Converse hi-tops. They took ages to lace up, but once they were on they were surprisingly fine to run in. A problem I've noticed is that after sitting down for a few minutes to change shoes, my back is really stiff and, coupled with the slight uphill on the first part of the circuit, I had to adopt a really upright stance, right on the balls of my feet, to loosen my back.
Then for the final lap I tried the thrid footwear option, i.e. none at all. At first I thought I had gone beyond the acceptable temperature range, but after a few hundred metres I noticed the cool less. I tried to keep to the grassy edge of the trail, but the mud was everywhere and it was a real squelch-fest underfoot. The soles of my feet felt strangely numb as I wiped down before replacing my socks and road shoes, but overall it was a success.
Lower leg / ankle niggles are present but minor, indicating that my barefoot suspension is toughening up. The ongoing ankle issue is still present, but much more when static than when running. My plan is to push on with caution for now.
So the proper plan begins next week, with a tempo sessions and intervals. I need to plot a suitable route on the green, and work out which footwear option to go for.
New moon on Saturday night - it'll be a gloomy one.
Oof, very stiff lower back today. I'm obviously still heel striking when running without cushioning. Strange how it's worse on the second day after the run - mind you, I often find that with running muscle aches.
I need to improve my gait, and scale it back a bit as well.
Week 1 of 18
Lunar phase: waning crescent, new moon Saturday
Tempo, interval and 8.5 miles easy completed around the green.
Despite the lack of moonlight, the urban ambient glow generally casts enough light to pick out the dark ribbon of trail and avoid any obstacles, so again I didn’t bother with the torch. After a month or so finding my way round the green, the darkness is now my friend: paranoid concerns of stumbling over a dead body in the grass, encountering an escaped serial killer, or just being attacked by enchanted trees have been put aside. Things might be a little different at midnight after 3 hours in lashing rain or thick fog, when the phrase "ethereal glow" will surely be all but worn out, but that’s for a later date.
For last week’s long run I plugged in the mp3 player and caught up with Episode 97 of Marathon Talk. The training talk was the second of two parts - the first having covered deciding your marathon strategy, this one implementing it during the race. They’re really big on negative splits. Could I achieve one? I guess aiming for a negative split is just another way of saying go out really, really slowly. I have no problems running to a strict pace plan, but would I still have the energy reserves to pick up the pace in the final hour? I guess one way to find out is to try and speed up towards the end of long runs. I see Mr Higdon is now advocating speeding up for the final third of your long run, but only for every third week. He also doesn’t advocate intervals or hills for anyone except advanced runners. And walking is fine. And keep those long runs slow. Caution, caution, caution.
No barefooting this week - all in road shoes, to give my back a rest. A lot less aches and pains as a result. But I will try and keep up a short barefoot session at the end of each long run.
Yeah, it's a great feeling to come out of a steady December and then really crank it up in the new year. It's a great way to start the year, and avoids the angst that seems to plague so many of the population who don't have a spring marathon to train for.
Time target is 3:45 - 5 minutes quicker than my PB, set (gulp) 7 years ago in the same race. I've certainly learned a lot in those years, but whether I've speeded up or slowed down remains to be seen.
I'm hoping not to rely on synchronising my biorhythms with the phases of the moon. But since you ask, there will be a new moon two days before the race. So minimal chance of lycanthropic manifestations on race day.
Here's the traditional monthly mileage chart for 2011.
After the usual summer lull, I got a good head of steam up in September, only to back right off due to injury. I'm on the up now, which is the right place to be.
This year the summer quiet period should be filled with some triathlon training.
Total for the year: 526 miles. Bang on 10 miles a week - not the mileage of a consistent runner, but I've never been one of those.
Sorry if you've mentioned this before Dan, but I couldn't find any reference when I looked the other day -- what's the story behind the London entry? Did you get lucky in the ballot, or do you have a charity place? If the former -- lucky git! If the latter, do let us have a JustGiving page or similar, and we'll try to generate a bit of business for you.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
The background is lurking somewhere in the depths of past threads. I was due a "5 strikes and you're in" pass for 2012 (which has now been phased out, but I was far enough down the line to qualify) but then I got lucky with the ballot in 2011. However, by then I'd already committed to the Brighton Rock caper, so I deferred to this year. Slightly perturbed to find you have to pay twice, but hey ho. A couple of months ago it looked ironically like I might really be injured this year, and you can't defer twice. But thanks to consistently keeping on the grass since then, I seem to have shaken it off. There will be a JG page in due course (or maybe Virgin Money, who apparently don't take a cut) - I just need to choose a charity first.
December - the road to London
