During my first long training walk on Sunday, which was supposed to be 10 miles but wasn't, I realised that I simply wasn't cut out for being a walker, and not only was I going loopy after 4 miles, but that if I wanted to walk 26.2 miles in Dublin the only way I would do it is if a) somebody was going to present me with a large black Mafia suitcase full of gold bars on the finish line, and b) I'd chewed my own face off and several other people's limbs along the way, and therefore was hiding in the crowd from the police and the men in white coats.
We walked for what felt like five months, but was probably only 5 or 6 miles, and then I just couldn't handle any more and ran back the last 3 miles to the village (and then a couple of loops around the harbour for good measure and sweat).
Since my last physio appointment I had run 10 minutes one day, 20 mins the next and then 30 (the 3 miles). My leg felt fine, so I plan to continue this slow but steady increase and see how it goes, with the aim of completing the marathon with very slow easy running and some walking intervals (sigh). I will trial this method on long runs at the weekends and see what happens.
My goals for Dublin 2009 were in the following order:
1. Finish.
2. Finish happy and willing to do it again.
3. Finish under 5 hours.
This time I shall have to make concessions for the sake of physical recovery, if need be, and aim to get to the end of the day in one piece, even if this means I DNF ("do not finish"), a new and rather unpleasant concept for me.
I ran my first three marathons in eight months, two of them eight weeks apart, and whilst I thought I had a fair amount of grit and tenacity, clearly I need a whole lot more to do something as crazy as walk 26.2 miles.
We walked for what felt like five months, but was probably only 5 or 6 miles, and then I just couldn't handle any more and ran back the last 3 miles to the village (and then a couple of loops around the harbour for good measure and sweat).
Since my last physio appointment I had run 10 minutes one day, 20 mins the next and then 30 (the 3 miles). My leg felt fine, so I plan to continue this slow but steady increase and see how it goes, with the aim of completing the marathon with very slow easy running and some walking intervals (sigh). I will trial this method on long runs at the weekends and see what happens.
My goals for Dublin 2009 were in the following order:
1. Finish.
2. Finish happy and willing to do it again.
3. Finish under 5 hours.
This time I shall have to make concessions for the sake of physical recovery, if need be, and aim to get to the end of the day in one piece, even if this means I DNF ("do not finish"), a new and rather unpleasant concept for me.
I ran my first three marathons in eight months, two of them eight weeks apart, and whilst I thought I had a fair amount of grit and tenacity, clearly I need a whole lot more to do something as crazy as walk 26.2 miles.
Comments
Post a Comment