So it starts here. The point of this blog is to keep you - kind sponsors, potentially kind potential sponsors and other assorted hangers on and voyeurs - up to date on my training. Through these pages you'll begin to get a sense of how the training is going and therefore how fast I might finish the marathon next April (or indeed if I'll finish at all!!). I'll record details of how much training I'm doing and how I'm feeling about it. I might throw in some details of what's going on diet wise as well. As you'll learn over the coming months running, food, Imodium and me have an intricate relationship. In fact it's with some thoughts on that subject that we'll start....
It's Sunday tomorrow, long run day. If the weather's good and I'm feeling fit it's the best day of the week. Now that I've reached a stage in my fitness that I can take on a 7 or 8 mile run with confidence it's possible to actually start enjoying them. Before it was like this I used to plan my routes with military precision. I'd pore over online maps and measure each street. Six miles last week and seven this, not a step more. How long would it take? Would I make it at all? Running further than I had before and struggling onward. Now it's different, now that I've got a few "halfs" under my belt it's a lot easier to feel relaxed about the long run, which makes it a lot easier to enjoy yourself. After all, you're supposed to run slowly, so head out, get some exercise, take in your surroundings and have some fun. Maybe come back in an hour or maybe an hour and a half, just see how the mood takes you.
We're two weeks away from the 2012 Great South Run so I'll head out from my house and point towards Southsea. The GSR is a dead flat ten miler, but it's not an easy jaunt and the hidden teeth are blowing in the wind. At the eight mile mark you reach Eastney, you make a right hand turn. From there the last two miles straight back down the seafront are where you find out if you are fit or not. For every yard of the first eight miles the people of Portsmouth will have cheered you on. They come out every year in their thousand'd to clap, cheer, yell and high five the runners along. The organisation is superb, the atmosphere is fantastic and you are carried along. At eight miles though everything changes..... If the wind is blowing it's invariably from the South West and this means it's invariably straight into your face. If it's wet then it's wet and windy so no spectator in their right mind chooses to hang out on that section of the course. There might be other runners out there but really it's just you and the wind. Nowhere to hide, are you fit or not, it finds you out. Anyway, my plan is to confront this windy menace head on this year, so I'm making sure I run the shoreline in the weeks before the event. Three easy miles from my front door to Eastney, turn right, bang in a couple of "race pace" (everything is relative!) miles along the front and then pick a route home. Last week was my first go at this and it didn't work out quite how I'd planned because when I got to the seafront the weather was just beautiful and the wind was behind me! I can't imagine it will be the same two weeks in a row so let's see what tomorrow brings.
Talking of wind, we had spicy lentil soup for tea tonight. Emma prepared it from scratch and very tasty it was too. The relevance of this to my running blog though is the history I have with stomach problems. More than a few times I've ended up walking gingerly back to the house, or to a nearby convenience, lest I do a Radcliffe. I'm the only person in Portsmouth who is not a fan of George Michael but knows where every public toilet is (tomorrow Eastney, Canoe Lake and The Pyramids are all possibles!). Let's hope I don't have to visit any of them! Before races I'm more careful with my diet and I ram myself full of Imodium, but between races I'm not so careful and it can cause problems. Fingers (or legs) crossed tomorrow is OK.
If you're running tomorrow yourself, I hope you have a great time. Let me know how you go....
It's Sunday tomorrow, long run day. If the weather's good and I'm feeling fit it's the best day of the week. Now that I've reached a stage in my fitness that I can take on a 7 or 8 mile run with confidence it's possible to actually start enjoying them. Before it was like this I used to plan my routes with military precision. I'd pore over online maps and measure each street. Six miles last week and seven this, not a step more. How long would it take? Would I make it at all? Running further than I had before and struggling onward. Now it's different, now that I've got a few "halfs" under my belt it's a lot easier to feel relaxed about the long run, which makes it a lot easier to enjoy yourself. After all, you're supposed to run slowly, so head out, get some exercise, take in your surroundings and have some fun. Maybe come back in an hour or maybe an hour and a half, just see how the mood takes you.
We're two weeks away from the 2012 Great South Run so I'll head out from my house and point towards Southsea. The GSR is a dead flat ten miler, but it's not an easy jaunt and the hidden teeth are blowing in the wind. At the eight mile mark you reach Eastney, you make a right hand turn. From there the last two miles straight back down the seafront are where you find out if you are fit or not. For every yard of the first eight miles the people of Portsmouth will have cheered you on. They come out every year in their thousand'd to clap, cheer, yell and high five the runners along. The organisation is superb, the atmosphere is fantastic and you are carried along. At eight miles though everything changes..... If the wind is blowing it's invariably from the South West and this means it's invariably straight into your face. If it's wet then it's wet and windy so no spectator in their right mind chooses to hang out on that section of the course. There might be other runners out there but really it's just you and the wind. Nowhere to hide, are you fit or not, it finds you out. Anyway, my plan is to confront this windy menace head on this year, so I'm making sure I run the shoreline in the weeks before the event. Three easy miles from my front door to Eastney, turn right, bang in a couple of "race pace" (everything is relative!) miles along the front and then pick a route home. Last week was my first go at this and it didn't work out quite how I'd planned because when I got to the seafront the weather was just beautiful and the wind was behind me! I can't imagine it will be the same two weeks in a row so let's see what tomorrow brings.
Talking of wind, we had spicy lentil soup for tea tonight. Emma prepared it from scratch and very tasty it was too. The relevance of this to my running blog though is the history I have with stomach problems. More than a few times I've ended up walking gingerly back to the house, or to a nearby convenience, lest I do a Radcliffe. I'm the only person in Portsmouth who is not a fan of George Michael but knows where every public toilet is (tomorrow Eastney, Canoe Lake and The Pyramids are all possibles!). Let's hope I don't have to visit any of them! Before races I'm more careful with my diet and I ram myself full of Imodium, but between races I'm not so careful and it can cause problems. Fingers (or legs) crossed tomorrow is OK.
If you're running tomorrow yourself, I hope you have a great time. Let me know how you go....
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