Days of caviar and cadence.
Wow, these mid-week runs are getting tough. My third hill-climb tempo run for the week was the hardest so far, and whilst I got through it thinking it had been quite manageable, I'm now, several hours later feeling quite sore in the quads and calf muscles. The strategy of slow, gradual improvement may have hit a temporary holding level, perhaps. Anyway, a rest day tomorrow should sort things out, and then we'll see what Sunday brings.
I would like to talk about Eliud Kipchoge for a moment, and his new marathon record, of sorts. Running a marathon in 2h00m25s is, of course, astonishing, even under tightly controlled conditions such as he had. It just goes to show that a sub-2 hour marathon is not only possible but surely inevitable. What was interesting to me about the attempt was just how irrelevant it made the sponsors Nike seem. The whole caravan and circus show was really supposed to have been a big promotional effort to push Nike shoes and their sundry products by showing how much they can help the superior athlete achieve their goals. What actually happened, I think, is that Kipchoge was instead shown to be the key factor here, far more so than the shoes. The champion athlete that he is, I'm sure, was the actual X-factor at the end of the day, and the high-tech, superior performance Nike shoes were of probably almost insignificant consequence. I say this because the other two champions who ran with him, Lelisa Desisa and Zersenay Tadese, champion marathoners in their own right, actually ran well outside their best times despite months of preparation and sharing the ideal conditions. They had, in effect, a bad day, and no fantastic footwear was ever going to help them. The only conclusion I can draw is that the shoes were not the star of the show at all, whereas the champion athlete Kipchoge clearly was the star attraction, and he quite possibly could have run in day shoes and still broken the record.
Perhaps, in my own despairing way, I'm asking if we can perhaps for a moment focus on the humanity of our endeavours, rather than become embroiled in the sales and chic-marketing arm of some multinational manufacturing behemoth. It's all too easy to be swept up in the hype and fanfare of a major promotional push such as Nike's Breaking2 effort. I mean, yes, certainly I was excited at the prospect of what they potentially might have achieved, and to be fair, did achieve. I too wiped my sweaty palms on the thighs of my jeans in anticipation of what might have been. I mean, hose me down with vintage Moet and crust my face with Beluga caviar; I thought this really was going to be 'it', and by crikey, it nearly was. Make no mistake, the two-hour mark will be broken, and quite probably in a race not so very far in the future. Now that everyone has seen just how close Kipchoge came to the mark, it has to happen. Physiologically speaking, there is no reason it can't be done, and so it must.
Which brings me to my own, far more modest, goals. With a few good weeks of solid training now complete, I am looking ahead to two races in particular in the latter half of this year. My first major goal was to be a 'range finding' marathon at the end of July, which I would use to then set a suitable target at the Sydney marathon in September. However the July marathon is now no longer possible for me, so September will have to be 'it'. Instead of having a useful July marathon time to guide my goal-setting, I'll have to base my target purely on the strength of my training, so wish me luck there. However, a PB is an absolute 'gotta be', with the primary target being to break 4h30m, which in theory should be perfectly feasible for me so long as I don't hit the wall as I have done in both of my previous marathons. The focus of my training this year has been to build endurance without hitting the dreaded wall and will continue to be so in the weeks and months ahead.
The other target is, of course, the Point To Pinnacle in November. In my four previous efforts at this race, I've consistently improved with a PB each time, but I've yet to finish the event feeling that I did it true justice. The aim, therefore, is to, as with the marathon, finish the event without hitting the wall, and for the P2P, finish inside 2h30m.
Of course, there is a long way to go before either of those races and my record in regards to consistent training, especially through the winter months, is very far from what might be considered 'good'. But with well over 750km of training completed already this year, I think I'm entitled to feel a little optimistic about my chances.
Yes, optimism is a good thing. I think I'll take out a subscription.
I'll see you on the training track; and please put that Moet in the fridge - I think we might be needing it soon.
May as well go for broke.
