Marathon Mann

When you see things being blown about, which have no business being off the ground at all, you know things are not right.  You think of scenes from documentaries about tornadoes in the US, where combine-harvesters are thrown around like pieces of paper!  Of course, the series of storms currently battering the British Isles are not in this league, but when I was running once I felt extremely uncomfortable when large pieces of tree started landing on the road in front of me.  Not that I’m a complete wus, wind can be “character building” but today was supposed to be a gym day in any case.  Since the gym would have involved dodging trees in the car, I took the quality command decision to do the excercises at home.

The whole balance thing including those lateral hops, bridges, lateral step-ups and the dreaded foam roller; all good.

It’s Friday evening though and I needed to go out this evening because what I do on Fridays is run Cafe Friday at Rothwell Baptist Church, our community cafe. Parents (or anyone else for that matter) can chill with a coffee & cake or toastie, while the children have a whale of a time in Friday Club.  If you want to come along do so, from 5:50 – 7-30 PM Friday during term time.

To be honest, for me, that was excercise enough.  Bring on the running tomorrow.

 

 

 

I love to run through the dawn, setting off while it is dark and returning in daylight.  Unfortunately, it is still too dark in the mornings at 5 – 6 AM to do that at the moment and I have to be satisfied with pitch black!

Boy it was dark this morning.  The streetlights hadn’t been turned on and if it wasn’t for my head torch, I would have found great difficulty navigating the light-industrial area between Dunston and the Metro Centre.  The chorus that greeted me as I enjoyed the otherwise quiet and deserted streets was not birdsong but the characteristic bleep, bleep, bleep of trucks reversing.  I thought this was very evocative of this urban man-made environment and it also showed that at 5:50 AM, when not even the dog walkers were about, the chorus of industry was showing our modern world awakaning.  The 24 hour Asda of course was already awake and I popped in for a few things at the end of the run.

When I go running first thing in the morning, I do see what seems like a different world and I am really looking forward to running through the dawn soon!

 

Below is my Hal Higdon Marathon training plan which I have chosen because it fits in with the “warm up” races that I have already booked: the Snake Lane 10 (not really a half marathon as the plan suggests but close enough) and the Spen 20. Today I was supposed to do a 7 mile run but after getting up at 5AM, not to run, but to drive 100 miles to Newcastle and only now (around 9:30 PM) arriving at the Marriott Metro Centre Hotel, it’s been a kind of busy and long day. The run isn’t going to happen!

It can be tempting, if you have a pre-set plan, to be tricked into thinking that if you miss one workout, you’ve scuppered your chances and sabotaged the programme. You can be burde ned with an incredible sense of disappointment and guilt. Of course this is rubbish because the real damage would be done by trying to force yourself to do something your body isn’t in a fit state to do!

On Saturday I have a parkrun and night run at Nostell Priory to look forward to, and a moderate 10 miler on Sunday. Then the Sunday runs escalate to 16 miles then 17, before the Snake Lane race . Beyond that the long runs get really serious with 3 20 milers before the big day.

So, a good night’s sleep is due now and then.