Week 0 - No miles
I've done a fair bit of running in the last few years but I hope 2017 is going to be a new start in more ways than one. Winning a London Marathon place in the club ballot was the best Christmas present that I could have hoped for, and it will mean the fulfillment of one of my major running goals. I think this will give me my mojo back just when I need it. When it is done, I may never run a marathon again. This time should be enough to tell me if I can ever achieve a sub three hour or if I should just let that go. I don't feel quite so bothered about that any more, anyway. Running doesn't consume me in quite the way that it used to.
I have always considered myself to be a little on the heavy side for a long distance runner and I think I would do pretty well if there were such a thing as weight grading. I knew that in the tropics there are many viruses and bacteria that help you lose weight quickly, so while in Sri Lanka I got one of each. The weight I lost from two days of not being able to eat at all plus a few more of having very little food is the equivalent of running a fair few miles I think. Having had both a viral respiratory infection and a high fever, I have been strongly advised not to start running for another week. I will be starting my training after a month off running.
The good news, for my training at least, is that I have neither the money nor the annual leave to go away anywhere in the next four months, or even to be able to do anything vaguely exciting enough to distract me from running. I have had trouble finding the dedication to put the necessary training into a marathon, which is probably why three out of four of them have been a disaster in one way or another. It definitely wasn't a good idea training for one at the same time as doing a half marathon challenge, for example. I don't think it's a coincidence that my only good marathon - which I actually won in 3:07- was after a summer when I had done no long races.
My training this time is going to be mostly boring, so I hope that I can find enough to blog about. It's going to be mostly solo runs, mostly local because I travelled way too much for races last year, and definitely no overstretching myself. What I can say is that I'm going to be as dedicated as I can be, and I'm going to give this one my best shot by doing it the proper way this time. I feel very privileged to be running such a big race on behalf of the club so I'm going do as well as I possibly can.
Good luck to my fellow ballot winners and to everyone else that will be training for a marathon in the next few months. Thanks very much to everyone in the club for making me feel like I really lucked out joining the Ealing Eagles. If I had not joined, I wouldn’t have signed up for even one marathon.
So, no running this week. Probably not much next week as well. It means I've got somewhere to
build myself up from.
