Put Yer Feet Up, says Schedule

Just when I thought I didn't even want to hear the word Schedule again, it was so surprisingly super lovely to get the RunnersWorld marathon training email this week. 

Compared to recent times, the suggested plan brought a huge smile and a massive sense of relief: 

• Monday: Rest
  
• Tuesday: Rest
  
• Wednesday: A gentle walk
  
• Thursday: Maybe a swim
  
• Friday: Rest
  
• Saturday: Another gentle walk
  
• Sunday: A gentle walk
  

And it brought a sense of achievement that I hadn't really tapped into.  Hooray! It's done. It's all done. All that's left now is the completely indulgent recovery process, including some weight gain, I hope. Could someone pass me the TV remote control? I can't get up, I'll upset my bag of doughnuts.

Race Report: 26 April 2009

On the hottest, sunniest day ever recorded in London (and I never exaggerate) 35,000 men and women completed the Flora London Marathon 2009. 

I'm very happy to say I was one of them. And my buddies, the Three S's, were amongst the pack too. Hooray!

Goal one: achieved. Crossed finish line.

But let's back-track a bit... Long before a finish line was in sight we all crossed the START line. I have to give copious gratitude and acknowledgement to the super smooth organisation that went on to make that possible, and I'm not just talking about the 4 of us getting up on time. The race was supremely well organised, with three different concurrent starts, separate time-based zones within each start, heaps of helpful marshalls and lots of space. I was amazed. Compared to the random crush that I've found myself in at the start of local races, this was heavenly. 

26.2 miles were laid out in front of us. We knew what we had to do. And, miracle of miracles, we did it. But it wasn't simply a case of running. Compared to a peaceful solo training run I felt like I was multitasking mission impossible: all senses were engaged to facilitate ducking and diving, bobbing and a-weaving to avoid colliding with other runners or tripping over the thousands of discarded drinks bottles, looking up to catch sights of the city and scan the supporter crowd for familiar faces, hearing cheer after cheer after cheer for the crazy, crazy costumed runners, and watching thousands of people run past while I waited in the Loo Queue a couple of times...  T'was all a bit exhausting, (and brilliant) if truth be told!

And amazingly:

• The shin pain that's been haunting training lately didn't show up at any point. 
• Towards the end, my left leg asked (not very politely at all) for some stretching, which I gave it in one of the tunnels so that none of the supporters would see me stop for a moment! But a quad stretch and a hammy stretch silenced its cries.
  
• My left little toe got attention deficit disorder and got in on the act creating a blister and whining a bit about that. But nothing that was going to stop me.
  
• The 4 of us were able to run the whole distance, no walking. Although at times we're all pretty sure walking might have been faster than what we were doing.
  

Goal two: achieved. Ran the full 26.2 miles. In fact, what with all the bobbing and a-weaving, my watch clocked 26.56 miles. What?!

Pace-wise, I took it easy and kept up a fairly steady plod. Actually did the second half in exactly the same time as the first half, which I'm finding surprisingly balanced!

Goal three: ho hum! My 4:42 didn't get me the sub 4:30 I was looking for, but to be perfectly honest, I couldn't give a **** about that. I'm alive. I'm not broken and that's gotta be more important ;o)

Safe to say, 300+ training miles, 10 chiropractic treatments, 8 massages, 4 acupuncture sessions and an unfeasible volume of Lucozade has paid off. Job done.

I'm hoping to acquire some photos soon but in the meantime if you need visuals, go find a mirror and take a good look at the superstar that you are for reading all my babbling blurb all these weeks. It's always been a team effort, this marathon malarkey. Thanking you. And hobbling off to lie down again...

Final Flapjack Friday

What a momentous oven door closing that was. My last tray of Flapjack Friday flapjacks are cooling in the kitchen (an old favourite recipe-wise; pineapple, mango and a hint of mixed spice). And, I have to say, I can't wait for them to all be gone gone gone. I may need to take an extended break from flapjacks after this weekend!

And so, what with this being my last blog entry before the run and all, I'm going to leave you with a modest little picture from way back when. It never hurts to practice winning (especially when no one is there to see you).

Thanks y'all for your support, donations, laughs and patience. See you on the other side of the finish line.

This time next week...

This time next week I'll be somewhere between Greenwich Park and The Mall. Hopefully very much closer to The Mall as I'll have been running for over 4 hours. 

Today saw my last significant training run, a steady 12 miler in the sunshine along the Pill Track as far as the Mosaic Turds (if you've seen them you know where I mean) and home again. There will be a couple of small runs during the week, just enough to keep the legs loose, but nothing even close to taxing. Schedule is asking for a speed session on Tuesday. Ha! Like that's gonna happen. Sorry Schedule, but I'm your slave no more. 

Ooh, that feels a bit frightening. Schedule has been a friend in many ways over these long weeks. It's hard to imagine how the last 4 months would have been without Schedule casting her guidance/dark shadow over my life. Love her and bless her, she's been a hard task master, mildly abusive at times, but she knew what needed to be done. And with her help I'm confident that I'm ready. Without her standing by me, guiding my choices of how to spend my days (why would I want to do anything else but eat, sleep and run anyway?!), I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be feeling this way. Sure, I also possibly might not be feeling the leg pain that I'm still feeling and consciously ignoring, but hey...

Tough love is what I've had from Schedule. And you've gotta respect that.

Passions still run high though. When I was running today I did have a clear vision of taking a match to Schedule and burning, burning, burning her. Thought it would make a nice final photo for the blog. Let's wait and see on that one.

So, here's to the final week. Thanks for hanging in there with me, y'all. 

Hoo-bloody-rah! Looks like we're gonna make it ;o)

Training Update Tuesday (yeah, on Thursday. Whatever)

I'm thinking of changing the title from Training Update Tuesday, to Reasons Why I'm Not Training Any Day. 

Yep, training is on hold once again. While my leg is feeling much better, I've gone and got a virus that told me to take a few days off and rest. OK, so actually the doctor told me that. I couldn't interpret what the shakes, sweats and headaches were telling me. Luckily the trained professionals could see the wood amongst the trees. 

And yes, it is possible my leg is feeling much better due to the ibuprofen and paracetamol I've been advised to take for the virus...

Tis lucky that the start and the middle of my training went really, really well, cos this last section has been one bit of trouble after the next.

Am counting the days now, ten to go... Bring it on.

In the last 5 hours...

In the last 5 hours I've run 22 miles, eaten the biggest plate of pasta you've ever seen and devoured a Biscuit Boost in three bites.

I will only ever have to run that far again ONCE IN MY LIFE. 

How thankful am I about that? You cannot imagine!

And now I'm going to take the ice off my legs and go soak in the bath until the water gets cold.

Heaven ;o)

Training Update Tuesday: Week 14

I'm free-styling now with this training malarkey. Shhhh, don't tell Schedule but I've developed an alternative plan. 

Schedule proved too much for me. But no more. Lessons learnt. 

I failed to listen to my own needs and went blindly on responding to Schedule's every demand. I let Schedule damage me. But I'm coming back stronger. Oh yes.

My injury seems to be magically healing. After 8 days rest I've rejoined the game, creeping along with a 3 miler, a 5 and a 10. Legs are feeling better each day. Today there's no pain at all. Hardly even a niggle. 

The plan now is to do one more long long long run, (20+), and then to taper. Taper is runners code for slack off bigtime. Personally, I can't wait for the taper. I've kind of already had one, cos of the injury, and it was lush (apart from the pain). The only problem with reaching proper taper time is that it means RACE DAY is getting very close. 26th April is approaching with gusto.

So, the revamped plan will see me running 20+miles tomorrow, 18 on Easter Monday and 12 on the 19th, with a few little runs in between. I'm pretty much done with speed sessions and fartlek. It all feels a bit like cramming physics revision the night before the exam now. As Runners World predicted, I've had a major "reassessment of my marathon goals"; Sub 4 hours??? Let's just hang in there with this bloody training and aim to make it round before they start letting the traffic back on the roads.