I Drink, therefore I Run

It's Bank Holiday Monday, and I am now all set up in my running gear (always important to buy a new set at the marathon expo, so you have something to look forward to when you go for the first run after the big day!). Nice stuff from Gore as well... 8 days since I last pulled on a running shoe...long enough to miss it and want it again.. ..still disappointed (a bit) over my London performance, but getting over it...3:38 still a great time, and I know I throttled back in the second half anyway as I knew I wasn't on for  PB or qualification time. I reckon that's why I am not so knackered now. ..have had a week of good food and wine, nothing spectacular, just some pleasing bottles - sitting here now I can remember: Volnay Vielles Vignes Nicolas Potel 2005 , silky yet with a bit of tannic bite Vigna Flaminia Rosato by Vallone, from Brindisi, a lovely dry and rich wine, made from Montepulciano and Negroamaro grapes, perfect with tuna steaks Hannibal 2004 by Bouchard ...

Portaloos... Playing to the Crowd... A quick reviving hug THE MEDAL

With three weeks to go to the marathon, there can be only one thought, and that thought is TAPER! The hardest part of any marathon training is sometimes having to stop, and let your body rest and recover before the race. You suddenly find yourself with these strange things called 'evenings' back again! With the clocks having gone forward, and your runs dropping to 4 or 5 miles, you are back and showered by 8pm - and with an hour of daylight still in hand. A good friend who is running the marathon for the first time said to me 'you warned me about this - and last night I had just that sensation, I suddenly didn't have a run to do, and I didn't know what I should be doing!' Ah well, only a few weeks to go.. There is still training to be done, of course, with 4 runs and 24 miles during the week. You run the same number of times, and still run the fast sessions, you just drop the volume. In the final week there will be some runs where it takes longer to get change...

Hello dear Reader. Once again my frequency has fallen. - so let me endeavour at least to engage you with quality! Well, what a week! Runningwise I was aiming for steady, and this week was the week with the plan for the Longest Run, an important part of any marathon Schedule. I was pushing for 25 miles at just shy of marathon pace. Did I manage it? Well, to be honest, no. I will explain.... This week was also the week of the Wine Tasting. My first paid engagement for a private client rather than a bigger corporate 'do'. A lovely lady who attended my December tasting in Windsor called me out of the blue a few weeks before, and wanted me to run a tasting in her house for 8 people, as a birthday present for her husband. How delighted was I! What a great, great opportunity. So, we planned in secret, and managed to keep it quiet from her husband. It was a real success, and once again reminded me how much I love doing this kind of thing, and indeed how good I am at it, if I may be...

I feel like I have turned a corner now with this injury, and whilst it is not yet over, my sense is that I have it at least under control, so it will not disrupt the BIG DAY (no, not the royal wedding, the London marathon!). 5 runs this week, 33 miles, and the Fleet half marathon! Now that is pretty good by my reckoning. I have been managing the leg somewhat, keeping it in check, and just running within my top abilities - which is, thankfully, still more than is needed speed-wise for the marathon. It was a delight this week to have company on the way to the Fleet half. Andy, a colleague from B&Q, (who is also tackling London, for the first time) foolishly consented to put up with my driving and my drivelling for the journey. The weather was just right, not breezy, cool but not cold. A big field this year, 2300+ I hear, and a new course, to take account of bunching at the start. Once again the organisers put on a grand show. I paced myself steadily round to a 1hr30min38secs finish...

I will limit the whinging about my injury to this...I spent the week managing the problem, quite deliberately, to ensure I toe the line on 17th April. So, still 22.32 miles and four runs, 3 of them deliberately steady. I also undertook some sports massage - truly painful, the most painful I have ever experienced, however it is what is needed. Anyway, enough already of my moaning. Monday and Tuesday were the remaining days with our Twinners, and as I said last week, I feel like I have been on holiday in my own town. Our guests were more than guests, they were family, and we delighted in how lovely Romsey and Stockbridge are. And of course this was an excellent reason to stay off running for a bit...aaah, I did say I would not talk about that! As compensation for this I have been ensuring that the quality of the wines tasting has been high! Two of these wines were drunk whilst the Italian Twinners were here, the other two in what has been a high-quality wine week. I recapped on...

Well, the title pretty much gives the game away here. After the twinge on Sunday, I took it easy in circuits on the Monday night, and all seemed well. I put in a good performance on the track on Tuesday, 12 x 400, even deliberately holding just a bit back in reserve - I said to myself (quite presciently) that I had all the fitness I needed, now I just wanted to preserve it for 7 weeks and stay injury free. Tcha! Took Wednesday off, and a gentle session on the gym on Thursday. I'm over this, I thought. Oh how wrong I was, as on Friday, during a tempo phase, the twinge returned. I took the difficult decision to scrub my Saturday long run and rest up. Never an easy call, it is a decision you roll into over several hours, dropping from 22 miles, to well, maybe 16, to perhaps just 10, to..well, you get the point. The arguments with yourself. So, there it was, 2 runs, 14.8 miles, in what should have been a busy week. The upside, however, was that there was more time to prepar...