I always enjoy planning things; such a good substitute for the inconvenience of action. Yesterday I discovered that the organisers of the Reading half marathon have opened the doors to next year’s race (March 7) and this knowledge launched me into a fog of research that lasted most of the evening.
As readers of the forum will know, I’m considering a marathon in Poland in the spring. April 25. When it comes to planning, this destination now becomes my starting point, from which I have to reverse-engineer my life. Now that I’ve publicly mentioned the possibility of the race, the chances of making it there have risen. Wroclaw has become a firm date, if a sort of… provisional firm date. This depends on M managing to get time off, which is not a safe assumption. Trying to arrange a holiday at her place involves a process not unlike completing a tax return. The third assumption is that I’ll try the Hal Higdon Intermediate I training program again (as I’d started to for my abortive assault on Dublin). If all of these hold true, this allows me to make a list of dates with attendant mileage and possible races. And that’s what I’ve started to do.
The first observation is that the 18-week program starts on… on Christmas Eve. I, er, I see. In fact, it matters little. Pretty good even, as the first week or two of the schedule are pretty laid-back, and I’ll probably be off work then, so time shouldn’t be a problem.
It all works suspiciously well, actually. The days that demand 12, 13 or 14 miles runs can be matched quite neatly with half marathon races I’d quite like to do. One of them, the Bath half, I’ve already entered. 2004 may be the year finally to do the Bramley 20. It falls at just about the right time in the schedule (Feb 29).
I had toyed with the idea of entering London again next year, but have decided against it. The main reason is the feeling that, for me, marathons must, by definition, be few and far between. And if I’m likely to be doing only one or two per year, it seems a shame to duplicate any. There are too many interesting places and events to experience. I also want to move away from the mega-races. It was great to do the London marathon and the Great North Run, but my appetite for mass-participation races has been satisfied for the time being. I may not even do Reading next year, even though it’s my local half. This isn’t a snooty thing. I’m not one of those who decry large races just because there are a lot of charity runners. As the archetypal plodder, I can hardly complain about slow runners or people who stop to walk. I just feel as though I’ve been there, done it, read the book, got the T-shirt, watched the video (yes! I really have!), and I want to explore something else for a while.
The Poland idea has been brewing for a while, and even if the spring race doesn’t happen, we will aim to have a holiday there before long.
Something I’ve not talked about much is that I’ve not been running with a watch for a couple of weeks now. At first it seemed to make no obvious difference, but now I’m beginning to appreciate the added sense of liberation it offers. Much as I’d hoped, this has opened up a new seam for me to explore. The most immediate benefit is that it reduces some of the stress of running. Just at the moment I don’t much care if I’m running quickly or slowly. Watchlessness has stripped away a layer of interference. It’s removed a barrier somewhere, and I feel much closer to the activity of running than I did before, when communication with what I’m doing was conducted via the gadget on my wrist; when the success or failure of a run was determined largely by the number of seconds that had vanished between the starting and finishing point. It’s no way to understand running.
I need to qualify this, as it will raise a few athletic eyebrows. Using a watch has irreplaceable benefits if you belong to a particular category. If you’re a competitive runner who measures progress by time and position, a watch is essential. As it is at the other end of the evolutionary scale, when you’re starting out, trying to run for a minute or two between five minute walks. And when preparing for a race, wherever you are on the athletic spectrum, it’s hard to do without a watch to gauge your preparedness, and to calculate what sort of pace will get you to your goal (even if your goal is just to finish). And if you put a cake in the oven and go for a run, well…
But many of us wear a watch just because it goes with the territory, and as a result, we exist in a permanent state of self-imposed pressure and anxiety. I can’t speak for others, but for me I realised it was doing more damage than good. Does it really matter that today I might have run 10:30 miles whereas yesterday they were 10:10 but last weekend they were 10:40…? No, it doesn’t matter at all.
I will wear a watch again, of course. Perhaps even tomorrow, when I hope to do a longish run. But for bread-and-butter midweek runs, there’s no compelling reason to use one, and plenty of things to be gained from leaving the thing at home. This is a subject I’ll come back to, as it’s set off a few, probably rather dangerous, ideas.
Another good run this morning — the usual 3.5 miles. Out at 6:15 or so; very cold again. I’m beginning to feel a bit fitter again, so I’ll be extending some of the morning runs again soon.
