I Drink, therefore I Run

A quieter week on the running front - for me - as I dropped my Long run on Sunday. Today's post has to be all about the excellent London Marathon. I was spectating this time, watching from about mile 24.5 on the Embankment. I am always truly awestruck by the marathon - what a great event, and one that is, almost without question, about everything that is good in the world - personal endeavour, charity and happiness. What, to use the phrase, is not to like? I had the pleasure of cheering on several friends who took part, as well as the 30 runners for PDSA. Wine of the week was pretty awesome too - Chianti Classico Riserva 1999, Casa Sola . Richly, brambly/cherry nose, utterly silky palate, soft and with plenty of body, and such length on the palate. As Janet said - makes you wonder why people are so down on Chianti. I must agree!

Highest miles yet recorded during the training phase. Long run not quite as good as last week, however, still a credible effort of 22 miles at 7.31 pace. I have to watch out for over-training, and not to leave my best race 'on the road' as they say. I did love the Spring weather,which makes such a difference to the running experience. Here's a photo of the Test Way - the old train line between Romsey and Stockbridge, a victim of Beeching, now a great 10 mile trail (or 20 if you go both ways as I did!) Wine of the week has to be Rosso di Montalcino 2008, Camigliano. Not so much for the wine, though that was absolutely lovely, toffee and caramel flavours on a bed of succulent cherries. No, it is wine of the week for the glorious back label, which says (..and I am translating here from Italian so be impressed, please!).."A wine for every occasion in the week. It is the wine for every day, above all in the evening, at home, in the moment of relaxing, after an intense day ...

A great week's running - really great. Topped off nicely with a strong long run at the weekend, just under 23 miles, and at an average 7.30 pace, with a very consistent pace throughout between 7.15 and 7.45. As it wasn't flat, this is especially good. I reckon that the Maidenhead 10 is starting to 'come into the legs' as they say. If I can have three more weeks like this, and then taper well, I will be as well set up as I could wish to be for Edinburgh. Running related of a sort - and a bit of a rant, kicked off by reading an article on-line. It was, I am saddened to say, from the Daily Mail, which is guaranteed to raise anyone's blood pressure, however I came to it via the BBC website, and there were several other stories in a similar vein, so there is a theme here. The first line was "Women run marathons to keep their weight down, but men sign up for the competition, according to research". Nothing wrong with that, you might think - however, consider the...

What a great week for both running and wine. Although the mileage was not spectacular, that is because I was resting before running the Maidenhead 10-miler at the weekend. Whilst I was not initially enamoured with the idea of an early get-up on Good Friday, on account of a 9.30 start and a 90 minute drive, I cracked open some pumping tracks whilst blasting up a pleasingly crowd free M4, and got very much in the mood! The day was one of pleasing things, such as the excellent macchiato doppio created by the man at the Costa Coffee at Winchester services. Then, on arrival, I was greeted by a runner I had met at a previous race - most impressed he remembered me. Really great. And then, to top it all, I knocked off a personal best of over 3 minutes, coming in at 66mins 37 secs, a great time on what was not a pancake flat course as promised. All in all a very good one, and not too pooped when I got home. Saturday brought what is not wine of the week, but, for once, wine venue of the week, w...

I took the first part of the week off as recovery from the weekend races - so, just Friday and Saturday, and a steady run whilst marshalling on Sunday. The philosophy of happiness suggests that helping others is in fact the best way to inner peace - and, having spent Sunday morning guarding a T junction whilst the Eastleigh 10k strode past, I get a sense of what that means. You can easily forget the pleasure of actually watching races when you run them..it's great to see the differing runners, their styles and personal battles. Even better, there is a certain surge when you hear those words 'thankyou marshall' from the huffing runners. You experience instant gratification from the participants, and reflect on the general niceness of their usage of the scarce resource of breath to shout out to you. Simple things, simple pleasures! I am delighted that I avoided the lazy "as a runner.." in the above piece, that is nowadays all too often used to justify completely sub...

A tough and very back-end-loaded week as far as running is concerned - a real test of current levels prior to five hard long runs before tapering for Edinburgh. I have done this twice, before Marathons, and it seems to work well as a benchmarker for where I am and what's to do! In true style, of course, I go at this too fast - seems to be my way - and hope I will emerge reasonably unscathed. I had set myself the target of running a half marathon in training on Saturday and then the Fleet Half marathon on Sunday - if you will, a session of "2 x 13.1 miles with a 12 hour rest". Goal was to hit marathon race pace, whilst reminding myself of what running on tired legs feels like, and I am delighted to say that I whipped my times by some margin! The consequence when I got home was about 3 hours of zombie-like post-bath stumbling including an hour in bed just trying to come round. A quick weigh-in also showed a loss of nearly 2 litres of water - remedial action quickly followed...

A double-post this week, to allow for the lack of a post last Sunday. We were at Champneys for a long weekend, hence no post last weekend, very little running and lots of exercise classes. It was a wonderful relaxer - really great. Exercise in the morning, pampering in the afternoon. My favourite class, without a doubt, was a spinning class the like of which I have never encountered before. I've done spinning - ie an exercise bike session - but not in darkness with the music pumping. We span to the beat, pushing the resistance up on the thumping bits What an adrenaline blast! At the end your legs are screaming at you, and you feel surprisingly good. Wine wise, we were very restrained, having but a half bottle of a rather good Sancerre 2008 for dinner. Very crisp, very clean, and with that steely determination that marks out Sancerre from New Zealand Sauvignon. So, a quiet post for two weeks - sorry about that - I promise a return to form next week.