The long miles...

The long slow run... the hours eaten...  the trainers worn down... hydration juice slurped... instant carbs chewed down...

Today was only a half marathon, 13 miles, a nice gentle pootle up and down the calendar... I was tired from my trip to London, running around playing at being a spy, and then the cramped conditions on the train back.

And the rain was beating against the window...

And I'm enjoying reading the Millennium Trilogy again...

And I have an objective... well I have a couple of immediate ones...

First up is the Excalibur Marathon - 26.2 miles 4750 ft, 12 hours... That's a walk, not a run, not for me...   That's on 31 March... So not far away...

After that its the Belfast Marathon...

which will look a bit like this:





Just your bog standard 26.2 miles.  That's 7 May... So not long away at all...

That gives my training a certain focus...

So I plodded out today, with only a couple of objectives:

1) Don't walk, shuffle if you have to, but don't walk
2) No Heroics - long and steady
3) Try and enjoy it...

And I did... all of them, even enjoy it... Splashing through the puddles, mud splattering up my legs (and somehow my face), never going fast, but with a steadiness I don't always run with...

Ok, the first 1000m out of the traps was a little fast, and a bit of a kick on the heart rate... And then I'm in the groove:-)

So, the long miles begin... and carry on for the next 7 weeks... My reading may have to wait a bit...

TFFN

Paul


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paul Willgoss MBE

Not a lot more to add to the title... apart from a HUGE grin, and an even bigger thank you to the people who nominated me for this honour. I'm hoping those 3 little letters will help with the awareness raising element of what I do, and work have helped in putting together a press release and getting it out today, so hopefully they'll be something to kick off 2010 with:-) http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/59282/supplements/23 TTFN Paul
Read more

Something a little bit political...

Well the legs still don't want to run, walk and climb is fine, run makes them feel a bit leary ... Probably the two most contentious words in the congenital heart world (UK branch) are "safe and sustainable", a quick trawl of the support websites or facebook will show many a group being set up to save a hospital or a ward. I won't be joining any of them. Not because I don't care, but because I care too much. The origins of Safe and Sustainable go back to the Bristol Hospital Enquiry, and quite simply this is designed to ensure that the surgery that heart kids get is the the most appropriate, done by well trained and supported surgeons who are used to doing the operations and are in a surgical setting which are designed around the needs of the child going through the surgery and their family. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. I want every heart kid to get the best surgery available to them, I want their parents to be given the best advice, support
Read more

12% of a plan…

  It’s been a month.     A month since the new heart valve was inserted… the chaffing has died down, I’ve been sensible and built my walking up, restarted my apple fitness plus bits and bobs (boy has it been a long time since I bent like that, or cycled/spun like that) and I’ve been for two runs – a gentle 3k which worked as a prelude to my return to my local parkrun… I finished, my tally went up 1, and I remembered just how tough it is to run the first mile on so soft, dry sand… In hindsight I would’ve been better to walk the first third and conserve my energy (and pool of fitness) to the prom and the grass thirds…   Relive 'Return to Parkrun!' Yes, it does look the first bit is out to sea…  Monday was a random day off work to get out and do something, so with a bit of head scratch and some nifty plotting on the OS Mapping app I wandered along the canal, and then down the Transpennine Trail & “loop line”… Almost pancake flat, I know it well from ma
Read more