Beaten by Beaufort

As much as I approve of a bit of resistance training, I draw the line at running about in gale force winds. My decision was partly vindicated by the fact that I only saw one hardy runner passing the house all day.

Instead I decided to head to the gym with an hour or so of effort enough to convince myself that I'd done something.

There was also the small matter of an actual date...

Back to earth now, ironing clothes for tomorrow's return to work and trying to get some reading done for the last University essay of the year. I am still yet to be convinced that you can sum up any aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict in only 3000 words.

Back in the Saddle

I haven't been down to a Monday night session at my running club for the past ten weeks, mainly because of my other hobby, so I was looking forward to tonight and a good catch up. It is slightly odd  making friends through running, after all the conversation tends to dry up after the first few miles when the effort kicks in!

Sadly the weather put paid to my reunion plans as there wasn't a particularly big turnout and none of my usual crew put in an appearance. Thankfully, just as I was contemplating a lonely run around the Harborne Hills, Jon Hammond made a late appearance giving me someone to run with.

The run itself was just what I needed, nice and steady at around 8 minute a mile pace giving me a good recovery after the weekend. I even managed to put a slight kick on for the last mile and passed a few others from the club. Most importantly I felt good afterwards and ready for a harder workout tomorrow. All is good.

Although I'm not sure about the new flowerbeds outside the Pavillion - an accident waiting to happen...

Prologue - 29th March 2015

I am somewhere along the River Rea cycle path, past Kings Norton park. British Summer Time has emerged, as promised, with wind and driving rain and I am definitely struggling. The whole point was to run angry, to work out my frustrations, but although the mind is willing the legs and refusing to play. It's too late to turn back and besides, there are other runners from the club coming up behind. 

Yesterday was the Midlands Road Relays, and I ran an absolutely terrible race. The slowest of the whole team, only by one second, but it might as well have been one minute. I could rationalise it by blaming the travel up and down the M6 the day before, arriving back home at one in the morning. Blaming the fact that my tea last night comprised a couple of sandwiches bought from a late night Sainsbury's. That everyone else in the team was reaching the end of their marathon training, doing thirty or forty miles more than me each week. But the simple fact is, that I wasn't good enough.

I used to laugh at the other runners in the club who document every training mile, obsess over the minutiae of every race. I realise that I have become just the same. In an odd way, this bodes well for the next few months.

Last May I ran the Liverpool Marathon. The training was the hardest I've ever done, only surpassed by the last mile of the race. In the end I exceeded my expectations and ran 3:05:29 - only thirty seconds outside a Good for Age qualifying time for the London Marathon. At the time this didn't bother me, but over the next few months it began to eat away at me and, with finding a gap in my ever-ending cycle of work and study, decided that this year I would attempt to reach that qualifying time. 

So on the 22nd August I will be running another marathon and, in keeping with my impulsive and generally irrational nature, will be doing it in Reykjavik. 

I was going to start this blog in a few weeks time when the training begins, but after this weekend decided that now might be more appropriate. Every story needs a journey, so why not begin at a low ebb? Hopefully it will make the achievement all the sweeter...

This morning I pushed on, the ache in the legs subsided and the last few miles were almost bearable. After drying off, I checked my run on Strava (what was I saying about obssession?) and found that I beat my previous best time heading back along Cartland Road.

Today's learning: always prepare properly and prepare to push on.