Toral de los Vados 2007. The training starts today.

[Riazor Blue]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I have to say that although I've been rather quiet on the diary front I have actually been running. It's not exactly 'training' but it still adds up to just a shade under 500 Km this year so far. The stepping up in kilometers I don't see as a problem, finding the time to run them is where I have difficulties.

I have tried a few different strategies for finding the time, being a new dad and all that... last year we changed flat so that I now live 6.5 km from work. Before last year's marathon I was running to and from work but this ended up not being training as I was always a couple of minutes late leaving the house in the morning or there were customers just before closing. I was always running to get somewhere, not to train for a marathon. Things have ended up back as either very early in the morning or very late at night. I enjoy the runs at around 11PM. Where I live now I run from Santa Cristina to Santa Cruz (for Sampedro) and back. During the week this run is heaven. OK so it's on the road but there is little traffic at that time of night. One can catch glimpses of the sea, which you can hear all the ime on the run and what's more one can smell the fresh air, the sea, the eucalyptus, the lavander, the pines and the roses in someones front garden.

I have negociated a few free lunchtimes to train aswell, these need negotiating as lunch is an important meal in our house, but three days a week I'll be able to do eithe speedwork or the long run and apart from the days when there are races I've managed to keep Sundays run free.

Actually for me fourteen weeks seems to be about right to get me into form, perhaps even less. anything longer and my achilles start to play up. These first two weeks are really just adding two more days running per week. The actual schedule is 12 weeks.