from Diary of a “Rubbish Marathon Runner” Twice in the last week I got a jolt of fear. The first time was when I heard that the Boston Marathon registration had closed a few days ago. For a split second I panicked about having messed up royally until I realised that I had signed up months ago, and everything was fine. I just hope all of you who planned on running it have done the same – otherwise it’s too late and your plans will have to change. The second time was this morning at 11 o’clock when I realised that Maia was still asleep. She had woken at 5:30, and I brought her into our bed where she fell back asleep again. She woke a second time at 8 o’clock, and I gave her a bottle and put her back down into her own cot. Three hours later she was still asleep, having already slept for 15 hours, which she has never done before. I had to check if she was still breathing, which thankfully she was. She is presently fighting off an infection, which makes her sleep so much. The entire rest of the family except myself are coughing and spluttering, though the worst seems to be behind us. I’m the only one who is unaffected. For all the talk about running suppressing your immune system, I don’t believe it. Having said that, I managed a lot of sleep over the weekend myself, over 8.5 hours both nights. That’s definitely more than usual.
Yesterday’s run was another uneventful easy one. I was a bit cold in my t-shirt, and maybe long sleeves would have been the better option, but it turned into a beautiful day later on, with plenty of sunshine and warmer temperatures. We have been starved of sunlight around here, and everyone really enjoyed the break.
Today’s workout was a different matter, Sunday is definitely developing into the most exhausting day of the week; the 30/30 workouts are somewhat strange. On one hand, 30 seconds of effort is short enough so that you always feel you can do at least one more. On the other hand, 30 seconds of rest are so short that you’re still gasping for air at the end of it. Anyway, I started struggling after barely half of the repeats but kept at it. The toughest part was at the same spot where I gave up last week, after 3 or 4 uphill repeats against a headwind. However, this time I managed to keep going and was surprised how much easier they became once I had left the gradient behind me. I managed all 25 repeats, albeit a tad slower than last week. There was always the little voice in my head that I could run them just a bit harder, the same one that had admonished me during Wednesday’s hill workout. As I said, in training you always find you can push a little bit harder, no matter how much you’re pushing it already. Then again, pushing as hard as you can isn’t the best way either. All in all I’m happy with my training, and I’m reasonably certain I’m still improving and Boston will see me in better shape than ever before.
31 Jan
10 miles, 1:21:02, 8:06 pace, HR 139
1 Feb
8 miles, 59:00, 7:23 pace, HR 157
incl. 25×30/30 (5:46 avg)
Weekly Mileage: 74
January Mileage: 359+