February Fighting Fit?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I arrived in Adelaide last Friday morning in the middle of a heat wave, with daily maximums around 42 - 43 degrees C and overnight lows in the 30s (one night was a record 39 degrees, the highest minimum ever recorded). It wasn't until 10 pm last night (Monday night) that the temperature finally dipped below 30 degrees C. A cool easterly kicked in around sundown bringing cooler air down from the hills. When the temperature dipped down to 29 degrees at about 10pm I changed into my running gear and hit the streets: bliss!

It was a fab run - I felt good from the outset and felt strong and smooth the whole way. Even the 2.3km hill from the 6km mark didn't trouble me much. In earlier times when I ran these roads regularly, this hill was a bit of a nemesis, an enemy out to kill all enthusiasm for this running nonsense, but on this occasion it was more of an old friend.

In the end a sedate but very solid 10.5km in 67 minutes, and in these conditions I'm happy with that.

Earlier in the day I also did 30 minutes swimming in the pool so I'm keeping up the cross-training even if I'm not getting in as much running as I entirely need.

I'm still puzzling over how to fit in all the training I need to cover before the April 19 race, but I am slowly getting there I think. If I can just get my long runs up to 20km fairly soon, I think a couple of 30km runs in the last few weeks will see me through. As I'm only aiming to finish the thing rather than set a time per se, I'm still hopeful of being OK on the day.