April Fuel 2014

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Three weeks without bread. Three weeks with greatly reduced alcohol. That's been the basis of my dietary slant on returning to fitness and healthy brimfulness.

The bread I don't miss at all. The alcohol? Well, I do miss it somewhat, but I don't feel enslaved by it either, so it's a fair balancing act. In short, it's all fine. I'm back at my fighting weight, I feel great, and I'm churning out a few decent runs.

I have my sights set on a half marathon in May, and further afield, another full marathon (my third) in September. The half marathon doesn't concern me too greatly - I could run that tomorrow, and am not really after a good time, it's just for the medal and the motivation.

The real goal is the September mara. But six months (nearly) is a long time to be in training. Any campaign of six months duration is going to have setbacks and periods of nil motivation. However, when I look back at my previous marathon campaigns, they have been lacklustre affairs - well planned of course, in true college undergraduate "fully prepared, rarely executed" form. The awful truth of those campaigns is that I've eventually run the marathons on too little training. Getting it right this time is going to be the primary focus. I have to tell myself the time doesn't matter nearly so much as finishing the damn thing in good form. Of course I'll look for a PB. That should be a given, considering the lack of kilometres I put into the first two. But I will consider it a success if I can finish the race feeling I have given it my best shot, regardless of the eventual time.

Anyway, we shall see. There's an awful lot of water to flow under the bridge between now and then, and a lot of kilometres to be run (something approaching one thousand of them is the aim). The training regime is pretty simple:

• Run every second day, i.e. seven times per fortnight.
  
• Build to around 200km per month.
  
• Two LSDs, two hill sessions, one Yasso 800 session and two tempo runs per fortnight.
  

And that's about all there is to it. Strength/core training will be mixed into the concoction as well of course, plus heaps of walking. And diet is a given - no bread, greatly reduced booze and well, the rest takes care of itself.

Wish me luck, RCers.