It can't be December already!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Here we are, it's nearly Christmas again.  Funny then that my focus is not Christmas lunch with oysters and booze, but the seaside town of Almeria and a date in early February.  Whilst it's tempting to start singing All my bags are packed, and I'm ready to go... there's still much to be done, although it's true that my flights are booked, along with the hotel and my leave from work is all approved, so I'm definitely going to be there. 

However, there is a little matter of training for the big day. Or rather, the lack of it.

Last we spoke, I was having trouble with some pretty damned serious leg cramps. These, I regret to say are continuing, despite my best efforts to alleviate the problem. I can only assume my modified diet has left me bereft of essential salts, perhaps something as basic as sodium, as I'm supplementing with magnesium and potassium, so I don't believe that's the issue. That, and some mild but annoying lurgies have resulted in a cessation of serious training, but things will be back on track shortly.

As regards the Maffetone Method, well I'm having to modify things somewhat, as the method is leaving me short of the distances and pace required for a comfortable traverse of the Almeria course within a reasonable time. So, I'm going to leave the low-heart rate Maffetone method for long, slow distances and add anaerobic training to get the kilometres required and the pace needed in place before race day materialises.

There's now too few weeks to hope for a really good race time in Almeria, but it's going to be fantastic to be there with so many other RCers.  But in the meantime, I need to get on with it.