So what’s gone wrong? As usual, my stupidity has turned an enforced break into something much worse. Last weekend I was in Manchester, enjoying too much Champagne and Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, and barbecued animal. I returned without a weekend long run to log in my spreadsheet, and with extra corporeal ballast to lug around the mean streets of West Berkshire. That was bad enough, but worse was a painful toe that gave me the excuse I needed to take a few days off.… READ MORE.... …
Blog Posts
Nine miles today. Sounds impressive, but it was a bad run. If it was a run at all. The brisk 6½ miles I did on Friday won’t have helped, but I suspect it was yesterday’s annual spousal duty (stop sniggering at the back) — a day trudging round the Hampton Court Flower Show — that played a bigger part in my lack of energy and poor performance today.… READ MORE.... …
And so, as the first week of fiftyhood hobbles to a close, it’s time to review how life has changed so far… I’ve not yet taken out my subscription to Saga Magazine, thank god. But two things happened this week that made me stop and think. The trouble is, they seem to be highlighting moves in opposite directions. The first came when I was running through Prospect Park on Wednesday.… READ MORE.... …
Has normal service been resumed? Hard to tell. It’s been an undulating week. Recovery from Saturday was scheduled for Sunday, but the fatigue bled into Monday and beyond. Yesterday I was up early to run a cautious and pensive four miles before breakfast. This evening was cool and drizzley. Ideal for a brisk five miles with the club. But I got to the appointed place, and…?… READ MORE.... …
(Written Sunday 1 July 2007) There’s nothing quite like a rainy race to wash down the first fifty years. The Oxford 10K last month broke a long sequence of races run in filthy conditions, but the Dorney Dash 10K got us back on track. The steady drizzle leading up to the start suddenly became a hefty deluge just as the hooter went.… READ MORE.... …
If a marathon is the top of my distance scale, the lowest is the humble 3-miler. It was my first ever target, back in 2001, and as I’ve mentioned more than once, it took me 8 months to reach it. It’s also the shortest run in the Hal Higdon training plans. His Novice schedule begins with a midweek of 3 x 3 milers, and an initial ‘long run’ of 6 miles.… READ MORE.... …
Something old, something new. This evening I took to the hills. Or to the hill. One hill, but consumed, sicked up and re-eaten four times. Dublin and Boston are not flat races, so I have to get used to the undulant way. Besides which, hill training will, they say, transform me into a herculean athlete at long last. It’s a good thing to do, regardless of hilly races to come.… READ MORE.... …
And they’re off… A 4.62 mile outing with the local running club this evening gets the invisible schedule underway. A strangely gentle affair. A couple of runners were coming back from injury, so we ran slowly to ensure their smooth transition from one sort of pain to another. The pace gave me a rare chance to enjoy the run, instead of being yanked from my comfort zone and cudgelled to the ground.… READ MORE.... …
How do you get to Dublin? Well I wouldn’t start from here, as the old joke goes. But too bad. It’s where I am. I’ve mentioned several times that this week marks the beginning of the traditional 4½ month marathon schedule. And yet… what schedule? You see, I don’t yet have one. Perhaps I’ll never have one. It’s one of the things that changes as you accumulate marathons.… READ MORE.... …
Here’s a new one. Today, a kilometre into my afternoon jaunt, as I ran past a new gypsy encampment, four dogs ran out and surrounded me, barking angrily. I tried walking slowly away, and one of them, a pathetic Jack Russell, took the opportunity to sink its teeth into my ankle. First time I’ve had dog trouble since we moved here in 2002.… READ MORE.... …