Day 1 of 126. The best day in the entire Hal Higdon training programme. Why? Because it’s a rest day. Yep, you heard right. Today I have to take it easy to recover from all that heavy deliberation; that long, slow, strength-sapping contemplation of yesterday. Which at least gives me the time to do a bit more of it.
125 days and 591 miles lie ahead. It says here. Gulp. Can that be right? That averages out at 4.69 miles a day. 4.69 miles a day? So this rest day, far from being a breeze, is just putting me 4.69 miles in deficit before I’ve even begun?
If the truth be told, it seems unlikely that I’ll manage to do the schedule as it’s written. The two weekend runs seem like a tough prospect once the distances lengthen, and I may find I gravitate back towards the Novice schedule which has just one long weekender. Essentially it’s a guide, and an indication of the rate of increase. How literally I interpret it is up to me.
Which sounds like a rather miserable get-out clause to me…
The main excitement of the day was gadgetry: getting hold of a Garmin Forerunner. This is the new GPS-driven distance monitor. I’ve had the Timex SDM for a year now, and have found it damn useful, but the Garmin has a couple of features that make it a better buy for me. The main benefit is that there’s no separate transceiver worn on the arm; the GPS antenna is integral to the wrist unit itself. Also, it has a built-in rechargeable battery, and it automatically records your splits rather than you having to do it manually. Plus a feature that I think I’ll benefit from and have some fun with: a “virtual partner”. You set a time or distance or pace goal for an imaginary running partner, and then race against this invisible person. A graphic shows you how you’re doing. Crazy how a bunch of flashing pixels can become some kind of electronic bully, but I have a terrible feeling that this is how I’ll come to see him. Him? Oh god, it’s a person already. The self-oppression begins, and I’ve yet to pull on my trainers.
