Week fourteen, and the first week of “taper”. I’ve been waiting for these desperate pangs within me, the feeling that I really, really have to run lots more than I’m allowed… they haven’t started yet!
I managed three runs this week, the fourth disappearing in a maze of meetings on Thursday.
Tuesday saw the usual run from the office to Aberdour and back. Nothin much to say about that.
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| Parkrun (photo by Leslie Stoddart) |
After missing Thursday, Saturday saw me at the Falkirk Parkrun. I arrived determined to stick to 9 minutes / mile. But I found that I was running at about 8:10… and so I gave in and let myself run as I wanted. I ended up at 24:00 for the 5km, clearly not keeping myself to marathon pace.
What was really nice about this was the folk from Life Fit Physiotherapy were also there. They are a great bunch, very supportive of local running and giving free advice and help at Parkrun. I asked about a niggle in my achilles tendons, and was given a quick check, a couple of stretches and some words of advice that make me feel much more confident about facing the upcoming marathon. I am planning to visit them for a deep tissue massage the day after the marathon; I suspect that I shall not be saying such nice things during the massage!
Today (Sunday) arrived and yesterday’s sunshine became nothing but a fond memory. Yesterday it was vest and short shorts. Today? Full-length leggings and windproof jacket. And the wind… as I said on facebook “If the weather is like this on marathon day, I’ll be sitting on the road crying!”
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| Me being stretched by Life-Fit Physiotherapy (photo by Leslie Stoddart) |
But, it was only a ten mile run.
There’s something I don’t think I would have said before this training started. But it’s actually fairly true – it’s not a long run right now. Six months ago, it was long. Six months hence, it will be long. But for now, it’s not… and nobody is more amazed about that than I am!
As an interesting aside, I looked up the definition of a “calorie” in terms of energy in food. According to Wikipedia, it’s the energy required to raise the temperature of a kilogramme of water by 1°C. As of last week, I had burned just over 40,000 calories in this training… which means that the energy I have burned could raise the temperature of one tonne of water by 40 °C!
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me – so far we are at the amazing total of £316.20!
07 – 13 May 2012
| Number of runs | Three |
| Links | – Tuesday – 5.93 miles (701 cal) – Saturday – 3.09 miles (366 cal) – Sunday – 10.01 miles (990 cal) |
| Total mileage this week | 19.03 miles |
| Calories burned this week | 2,057 |
| Total mileage since start | 370.37 miles |
| Calories burned since start | 42,075 |