Okay, confession time. I have been away too long. This training for a marathon malarky is rather time consuming, you see. This week I had one day off training and that was because I was driving to Swindon for a Fforde Ffiesta meeting.
After being a little bit slack for two weeks I was finally shamed by the groups of obviously-in-training-for-the-marathon runners that kept running past my flat at about 7pm. It is now mild enough to go outside again so I can bid adieu to the dreaded treadmill and get back out into the evening air again. It is still hard to get away from work at a decent time (I know - you all think we teachers work 9 - 3 not 7 - 6), but I know I owe it to myself after all this hard work to prioritise training.
Since I last posted I have done several 18 milers although this is hellish boredom as it does take me about 5 hours and I have the attention span of a flighty goldfish. I alternate between listening to music, the radio and audio books, but nothing quite gets over the fact I seem to be wasting every Saturday pounding the streets.
Mostly I run into London, I did try Hatfield once but it was the dullest route so I shan't be trying that again.
What have I learnt since I last wrote? Here's just a few nuggets of my running *cough* wisdom:
- A personal trainer is an investment and not an extravagance
- Just when you think you've made every muscle in your body ache a new one seems to pop up that you didn't even know existed before
- It's right what they say about breaking in new shoes BEFORE the marathon, my new ones still make my feet ache
- Burger King milkshakes are a perfect recovery food (or so my friend Ros claims)
- Paula Radcliffe wasn't letting off clear liquids in that marathon gutter (I'm never going to claim to do a 'Paula' again now I know it wasn't my equivalent of peeing in a bush)
- Aspire have somehow managed to fit 'Elizabeth' on my race tee-shirt for which I am grateful as I was dreading the loathed 'Liz' popping up when they ran out of space
- It is normal to feel exhausted
- You CANNOT diet and prepare for a marathon
No comments:
Post a Comment