February 2012

[marathondan]

Week 8 of 18
Lunar phase: waxing gibbous, full moon Tuesday

Wednesday – 4 miles intervals along the canal. The waterway was frozen solid in all but the most sheltered of spots. I was glad of cap and gloves this week, although still braved the shorts. I spotted 2 or 3 sets of swan footprints in the ice, which must have been made during a partial thaw, and which continued for about a mile along the canal. Someone had been pretty keen to find water, and not in the mood to fly. A good session; next week I should increase the sprint interval by another 10 sec.

Friday – no chance of repeating last week’s uber-session; fresh snow overnight meant I had a couple of inches of virgin powder to deal with underfoot. Having dropped Emma at preschool I jogged up to the field and kicked off hard, but within a couple of hundred metres I was gasping for breath and had to cut back, as my road shoes struggled for grip with every step.

By the end of the second lap, I’d decided I would can it after three laps, on the basis that I’d probably put in 4 laps worth of effort. But then at the magic point towards the end of lap three, when the field slopes gently downwards and the end is in sight around a small copse, the TdJ kicked in, namely The Surfaris and Wipeout. This put such a summer feelgood smile on my face that I was convinced to grind out the last lap, in whatever time it took.

7 miles banked.

Sunday – I was fed up with running in snow, and the pavements were clear, so I took to the streets. This session was overdue anyway; I hadn’t run on tarmac since October, which isn’t the greatest preparation for a road marathon. I did think though that the effort gains from running in mud and snow would outweigh any loss of leg steel from lack of hardtop miles.

And boy, was I wrong. By 10 miles, my quads, ankles and hips were shot. I made it round, but it wasn’t pretty. More worrying were the times: each successive 5 mile lap took 1-2 minutes longer than the last, and I finished in 4:10 marathon pace, 25 minutes off my target time. So somewhere I’ve got to find a minute per mile in the next two months.

But that’s what I love about this game. All you can do is take a couple of days rest, tweak the regime a little if need be, and then just get out there again and carry on. There will undoubtedly be more obstacles before the start line, but I just have to have faith that if I take it one step at a time, I’ll get there. And if I fail to make my target time… there will always be next year. Well, more likely the year after. Next year I’ll probably have a date with a giant chicken or similar.

But it did strike me that this is very much a game. I’m in the privileged position of being able to choose to put myself through hardship. I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay the bills, or how I can cope with caring for a terminally ill relative, or whether I can stay off drugs for another week. Which makes me think that unless I can channel some of this effort into the greater good, I’m just pissing in the wind. I’d love to be able to divert this energy into great works; as it is I’m not sure if it puts more into me than it takes out.

Anyway, back to the run. Positives? 1. Hopefully I haven’t left it too late to start the pavement pounding. I have a couple of months to get steel back into those legs. Henceforth I’ll alternate the medium and long runs on hardtop each week. Hopefully that will do enough, without risking aggravating the ankle that started all this hassle. 2. Energy wise I was in good shape. It was definitely all about the legs; 15 miles on a few handfuls of raisins and I was fine both cardio- and glycogen-wise.

I should mention that for the Marathontalk interview this week they’d finally bagged the big one: Haile Gebrselassie. Between the now unfamiliar traffic noise, and his accent, I missed quite a bit of it though, and it didn’t sound like a great talk. But when asked to name the greatest moment of his career, he did of course cite Almeria 2005, and taking down Andy Lynam.