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.

Doing The Ton

by Russell Turner - 17:01 on 30 April 2023

April is over, and despite some occasionally dodgy weather I’ve passed 100 miles run (plus 15 in walks) for the first time since August. Mileage has increased every month since a meagre 35 in November (although that did follow two-marathon October). May’s training plan totals 210k – 130 miles – and a further 200k in June; with less than ten weeks to the Race to the Stones I suppose that’s no big surprise.

I’ve ignored this year’s official plan, supposedly improved by its new sponsor, and stuck with the 2022 version, which had been unchanged for several years. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – although I did slip in an uncalled for virtual marathon. Sometimes you have to be flexible.

Things have been going so well that I’ve even pondered the possibility of upgrading the Yorkshire 10 Mile in October to the full marathon, the week after the Royal Parks HM, memories of the dreaded (by me) Dunnington spur having faded again. It would probably be unwise, but there’s plenty of time before a decision needs to be made.

In the meantime, there are still several ultra admin things to address: charging iPod and Aftershokz (if I use them) on the run is one, ditto for the Garmin which might last for 100k but not at the pace I expect to cover the distance. It would be digital disaster if it ran out of puff before I did and my effort failed to be recorded for posterity and the admiration of all my followers.

For a brief while this week I was in the market for a new Garmin when my Forerunner 235 mysteriously blacked out when I plugged it into the laptop to upload Wednesday’s run. Nothing I could do would bring it back to life so I grumpily scanned Garmin’s website for a replacement, which ranged from an ultra-friendly mega-battery model for £900 to starter watches with fewer bells and whistles for £100+ but which didn’t match my 235. Fortunately, my credit card wasn’t to hand or I might have invested in the 245 – fortunately, because the 235 came back to life behind my back. I guess a software update was involved.

No other purchases should be needed, apart from maybe some replacements for well used socks. All other apparel is sorted and my new Harrier backpack is light, comfortable, and will hold a Camelback 2L bladder with no problems. I’ve yet to test the pack with race day contents but foresee no dramas.

May’s plan features four back-to-back long runs, the longest being 20k followed by 15k the next day, and ends with a 35k long run – a mere nothing compared with the 45k and 55k runs in June. There are also nine gigs and a Glasgow trip to see Peter Gabriel to work around between now and race day, plus the next Chatterbox to produce. And the lawn has yet to have its first cut of the year. Looks like I’ll be busy.

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