Monday - 1hr in the gym
Tuesday - Buy new off road trainers (that'll fit in further down the page), run in new trainers at a steady pace for 1h05m.
Wednesday - Rest up
Thursday - Another relatively east 1h05m run in my new off roaders.
Friday - 3k squad swim session taken fairly easy.
So, what's the big deal? Why has the training been intentionally steady? You may well ask!!!!
It started several weeks ago when I bumped into a clubmate and local Ultra Distance lunatic in the gym. She told me she was doing some mad Marathons and knowing I'm a glutton for punishment she started the hard sell. Luckily I pointed out that the race clashed with an Aquathlon I was doing. "The Marathon's on a Saturday 12th, not Sunday 13th." was the reply. Ah heck.
The weeks passed and I kept on pondering this Marathon until the dates came up for my cycling lab tests. Saturday 5th & 12th April! Ah well, I was going to be sweating it out in a heat chamber the day before my Aquathlon, but at least I'd got a good excuse to wimp out of the Marathon. Then last week at my first heat chamber session came the immortal words "Can we postpone next weeks session?" which was follwed by an email off my ultra running clubmate on Sunday.
"You've got no excuse not to race now"
"I've got a race the day after"
"It can't be that serious, you were willing to sit in a heat chamber before it"
"The website says entries are closed"
"The entry form's still active though, fill it in"
"Ok, ok, ok. The entry form's gone off, but the website still says they've closed"
"You'll be fine, call them in the morning"
"I'll call them and see if I've got in"
So that was it, one phonecall later, my entry's all sorted and I'm doubling up with races this weekend. Then I realise exactly what I've done, this is no normal Marathon, firstly it's off road (hence the new trainers) and word is that it's got over 10,000ft of climbing. That's going to hurt, a lot. It's supposedly the toughest race in a series of 5 and the last race was WON in 4h53m so this could well be 5hrs+ of pain which will be longer than the great IM Florida walk of 2004.
So there it is, tomorrow I'll be racing the Endurancelife Coastal Marathon (Exmoor) with a course profile that looks like this....... it's going to be pain, pain, pain.
Nice don't you think????? NOT!!!!
To add to all my woes and worries it's London Marathon weekend and that's a big thing on this side of the pond. Every time you switch on the TV or the radio there's comments about some celebrity or some worker on the show that's racing London on Sunday. There's all this talk about how tough it is, how people will struggle to get round, how much of a success it is for people just to complete the course. I ran last night and nobody who's doing London was running any more than 3 miles, I ran 8.75miles off road. Then suddenly it hit me! I've just entered a damn Marathon! FIVE DAYS before it takes place! I haven't trained for it! I haven't tapered for it! I jus entered it as if it was a local 10k! But it's not! It's a bloody Marathon! What have I done?! Oh Hell! I think I need my head looking at!
That'll do for now, I need my beauty sleep.
Hopefully, 'if' I survive, I'll be writing a report on the 'adventure' tomorrow and making a prediction about how badly I'm going to do at my Aquathlon on Sunday.
You've got to love all this daft sport stuff - Goodnight.
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