Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Time For A Little Something

by Russell Turner - 16:09 on 02 April 2018

This is the last big training week, to end with a 3.5hr run, beginning today with a 50-minute trot in which, once again, cold headwinds featured. My pace was modest, which was good, but whether that was through skill, wind or accumulated tiredness I couldn’t say.

By this stage, Coach Matchgirl tells me, I should be running on weary legs – something I’ll need to experience so I can cope with the strain as the marathon nears its end. I think I’ve got it. Last month I covered 93.3 miles; by the end of the week I’ll have topped 300 miles since I began the couch to 5k in early October.

Apart from a 30-minute run with Matchgirl and a few minutes when our paths coincided, all of my training has been alone. That’s suited me fine, but the closer The Big Day gets the more I’m looking forward to having people around me. I might hate it after ten minutes, of course. Seeing other runners sharing the struggle will, I imagine, help me keep going. And the invigorating effect of the crowd can’t be underestimated, I keep being told. We’ll see.

Something that might help in the meantime is the belated realisation that I should be eating more – possibly one of the reasons why I’ve run out of steam after 13-14 miles. My weight dropped 10lbs quite quickly after I started running to settle at 14st 4lbs. Because it didn’t change again I presumed I’d found my natural weight and was consuming enough to compensate for calories burned off.

Matchgirl thinks otherwise (shame she didn’t press the point earlier) so I’ve prescribed myself extra protein, partly in the shape of chicken breasts (The Rock eats seven a day, apparently) and some more carbs. Cats were very excited when the packet of chicken came out of the fridge this lunchtime and very confused when it went back in without them getting any. They do take us for granted.

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