Week 4 of 18
As I was already running 10 milers, I've dropped into Hal Higdon's beginner marathon programme at week 3. The main challenge for the next 6 weeks is fitting in my three runs a week around work. After that it will be school holidays, and I'll be able to return to nicely spaced runs at convenient times of day.
For the next 6 weeks, the plan is a medium length effort session (tempo or intervals) midweek, then a short easy run (loosener or recovery) and the long easy run.
So to this week... Wednesday night at 10pm I went for my first proper, hardcore, late night session for a couple of years. Dark, raining, 6 miles intervals around the field. A bit of a shock to the system at first, a reminder of what a commitment marathon training entails, but after the first lap I was at one with my environment, no longer noticing the rain, the squelch of my road shoes through long wet grass the only minor inconvenience. That and the dazzling headlights which occasionally sent me off the dog-walkers' track and into the thigh-high grass, and the dark shapes, just visible in the glow of light pollution, which I took to be horse dung and managed to avoid. Back in the game, happy days.
Friday
At least horse dung doesn't hurt when you fall in it. So I'm told. I squeezed in my short, easy warmup run between dropping off a posse of scouts at their Friday night meeting, and picking up daughter from youth club, half an hour later over the road. It was just a case of stepping out of the car, starting the watch and heading off in a random direction. Unfortunately that soon turned out to be downwards, as I tripped over the pavement while "getting into the zone". Apparently I go down pretty heavily, as a lady emerged from her front door, alerted by the sudden slap of flab on tarmac, to check that I was OK. As is usually the case, the main casualty was my pride. A few stretches and I was on my way, blood oozing from my knobbly joints.
Saturday
Fitted in the long run in the early evening, through fields and woods as the light began to fade. Marathontalk was on the audio as usual, and for the first time this campaign I oulasted them. Quite early on I did start to feel that I was tiring of the dopey duo, and that maybe it's time to switch back to the Science Hour. They do provide a great service, but I can only put up with them for so many long runs until I need a break.
Having said that, Comrades fans might enjoy the episode 387 interview with Steve Way, GB elite who has just finished his debut Comrades in 9th place. Most interestingly, he ran without a stopwatch, but did keep his heart rate within a narrow band. 40 mins into the episode if you're interested.
https://marathontalk.com/shows/episode-387-steve-way/
Another thing that always happens as the miles increase is that I take 3-5 miles to warm up. So long runs never start off nicely, they always start off with niggles and anxiety, and it's only after 40 mins or so that I remember that running long is what I do. Also as the runs get longer, the time honoured approach is for the distraction of spoken word to give way to the motivation of upbeat sounds for the last couple of miles. I found that my 80s party tunes complilation (yes, really) was missing, so I rolled home to Ash's excellent album Meltdown.
Year to date
Jan 6 miles; Feb 19; Mar 39; Apr 56; May 69
