Christmas is fast approaching with only 4 days of work left this year has flown by and even more scary, only have 3 months until the Marathon Des Sable. I keep reading blogs about others training and starting to think the finishing as one of the top UK entrants is slipping away fast. I am out of training this week after falling and hitting my knee last Friday I went back to training on Wednesday. As a result I have damaged a tendon in my ankle due to a funny foot placement so I am still out even though the now is now OK- Lesson learnt no more TreasureChests in Mahiki.
Unfortunately unlike the Berlin Marathon I don’t think I am going to be able to turn up without training and still get a pretty OK result (Randomly got a letter through with my times yesterday, only 3 months after the event, Half 1.26, full 3:04 178th /3,000 in the under 30’s).
I have still not really got into the swing of training although I have done a few long runs and starting to build a bit of speed up but a long way to go. One o of the critical success factors will be preparation and that is most defiantly missing at present.
I am learning a lot about myself in this process. After training almost twice a day with rowing and never missed a group session, I just can’t force myself to put the same training into running at the minute. I am feeling comparatively lazy, the lack of training is also not allowing me to release the tension form work and I am starting to affect my mood. I am over competitive with myself which means I set myself unrealistic challenges, as a result I am never happy with the outcome, for most people finishing would be an great achievement, why I have set myself the challenge of being a top UK finisher I have no Idea, but don’t think I will be happy unless I achieve it.
I am doing this as a personal Goal, but more importantly to raise money for ‘Springboard for Children’, this is a great charity do click onto the pages to read about their work. It is a relatively small charity but does amazing things.
A few times and distances:
• 19th November: 17.14 miles, 02:06:31, 07:23 mpm, 1973 Cals
• 30th November: 05.10 miles, 00:31:16, 06:08 mpm, 605 Cals
• 04th December: 15.74 miles, 01:50:05, 07:00 mpm, 1915 Cals
Christmas over it is time to get organised - a little late but better now than a month before the Matrathon Des Sables. I have ordered my Back-pack and Compression Shorts so I can start training with Race weight from the start of January for the next 3 months. Reading MDS Blogs; it seems most first timers will head out with 10+kg, although if I am smart I am hoping I will get this down to about 8kg.
