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.
A Quick Catch-up
by Russell Turner - 16:34 on 09 February 2023
Suddenly it’s Week 5 of the nine-week Inverness Half Marathon training plan. The snow is gone (for now, anyway) but that doesn’t mean the weather’s any more conducive to running: yesterday’s interval session took place despite some challenging wind. At least that meant I had help half the time; the down side was that for the other half I was heading into the gale. It’s character-building, they say.
Week 3 ended with what should have been an easy eight-mile long run – the longest distance covered since the Yorkshire Marathon in October. Eight miles it was but easy it wasn’t, thanks to poor sleep (which seems to be a recurring problem). Despite that, the second half was (unintentionally) faster than the first. Go figure.
Week 4’s long run was to be my easy eight miles, but I made the mistake of exploring some new paths. The result was more than 10 miles of mostly off-road tracks and almost 200 metres of ascent. Although this is the kind of training I’ll need for Race to the Stones, with 22 weeks to go it’s probably a bit early to start, as my legs told me by the end.
Amazingly, they recovered quickly, were fine for a walk the next day and for the intervals the day after that. I’m having a complete day off today, though. For Week 5’s long run I’ll return to eight miles, with lots of ascent, but with better planning and pacing. It’s only five months until RTTS – the time will fly by.
Before then, I’ll take advantage of a quiet City Limits diary to gather a few more race medals. March begins with the Nairn 10k, at which I hope to improve on last year’s injury-hampered showing, followed by the half marathon. The Sunday after that, I’d hoped to debut my home town 10k in Wakefield until a wedding was booked the night before. Such is the impecunious musician’s life. March ends with the Miltonduff 10k near Elgin. We’ve a gig the night before that, too, but as it’s at posh Newhall Mains, five minutes from The Rural Retreat, and the race takes place at a very considerate 2pm, I should be able to cope.
Gigs pick up from April but I’ve still got three 10ks and a possible HM, not to mention the virtual London Marathon, before June when gigs every Saturday mean Sunday will be a day of rest and long run day is Tuesday.
Receiving our award at the Press Ball.
Lack of gigs hasn’t meant no juggling of the current training schedule, however. Last Friday Matchgirl and I attended the Press Ball, where Chatterbox was named Highlands and Islands Community Newspaper of the Year (for the third time in my ten years as editor, he said boastfully); this weekend we travel to Glasgow for Strictly Live; later this month I fly to London for two nights at the Palladium with my hero Rick Wakeman who’ll play Six Wives, Arthur, Journey and selections from Yes. How could I miss that? And I’ve the next Chatterbox to have ready before publication on March 1st. Busy days.
As for the autumn, October is very quiet gig-wise but filled with race possibilities: Loch Ness Marathon and Great Scottish Run on the 1st; Chester Marathon and Royal Parks HM on the 8th (HM ballot results out on Monday); Yorkshire 10 Miles on the 15th (already booked – no marathon this year – I’ll need much longer to forget the Dunnington spur). We’ve five gigs already in November but I’ll still squeeze in a return to Brodie Castle for the 10k.
And along the way I’ll turn 65, although I won’t be a pensioner for another year because the government changed the rules. Ratbags.
Add your comment
© Russell Turner 2008-2024