According to my horoscope in Metro (the freebie London newspaper) a couple of weeks ago, If you’re single, this is a good time to take advantage of Uranus. This provided plenty of food for thought as I trundled along the Hammersmith & City Line.
It’s with a sense of deja vu that I begin to ask questions like “What will I do differently this time round?” The experience and, if it’s not too portentous a word, the wisdom you slowly accumulate as you age, tells you that pretty much everything in this life is fully user-configurable. The realisation takes a while to develop, but it arrives with most of us eventually, like some cave painting becoming clearer as the eyes grow used to the dark.
And a pretty heavy fragment of sagacity it turns out to be. We can’t rely on the unpredictable anymore. We are accountable. More than accountable: we become the authors of our own lives. Random gusts of fate are a thing of the past. Even the movements of Uranus are no longer important. It’s up to us.
So. I know what I want to achieve: to complete the Dublin marathon in less than five hours, and to enjoy the race more than I did in London and Chicago. It’s up to me whether these things are achieved. Worse than that, it’s up to me how these things are achieved. Which brings me round to that question again. What will I do differently this time?
The best way of securing an improvement has to be to do the training this time round. Sounds obvious perhaps, but for both the London and Chicago campaigns the actuality never quite corresponded with the good intentions. To add a bit more spice to the resolution this time, I’m sticking with the tried and tested Hal Higdon, but am trading up to the Intermediate I from the Novice programme. (There are another three steps after this one.)
The Intermediate I represents a significant gear change. Including the race itself, the total mileage is 591, compared with a mere 460 for the Novice programme. It includes two long runs each weekend instead of one, and two 20 milers instead of one for the novices. As sports reporters have a tendency to say these days: “It’s a tough ask”.
The biggest obstacle to improvement is a lack of fitness and endurance, which equates with a simple lack of miles. If I can crank up the mileage without getting injured I’ll feel much more confident of a good run on the day. There are plenty of other measures to take, but I’ll come to them over the next few days.
This morning I knocked off the first 3 of those 591 miles. I’ve taken to getting up early and running first thing. Fab weather in England at the moment, and 5:45 is a great time to enjoy it.
There seem to be more animals around at this time of the day. Dozens of rabbits in the back lanes; deer and racehorses along the estate paths, and the great conference of crows down by the lake. I enjoy a gentle canter in the sunshine, before turning towards home for newly-baked bread and honey and bananas. A shower, fresh clothes and a stroll to the station. It’s a perfect start to the day, and I grin like a maniac all the way to London.
