Week Fourteen Of Training

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.

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!"

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