Sunday

This is the book that I'm using as my training guide for the next three months. In a nutshell, it lays out a sixteen week schedule.
My only problem is that the schedule started on August 7th and I haven't done anything at all.

So this morning I got on the canal towpath and headed out. All year I've been using a Nike+ device that plugs into my iPod. Thom B. has just borrowed it and I didn't recalibrate it. On my return about an hour and a quarter after I'd started, the iPod informed me that I had run about a mile and a half.

In fact, I'd run down the canal towpath as far as something called Harding's Bridge. Which I know for a fact is three miles along the towpath.

So I reckon that I ran between six and eight miles this morning. Which gets me back on schedule.

Target Times

Back in January when I first started running, my aim was to complete the Bath Half Marathon within two hours. On the day itself, I stood in a marquee sheltering from the rain and listened to two women talking about how they'd both run sub-two hours the previous year.

I completed in 1hr 45.

If I'm honest, I was slightly disappointed that I completed the triathlon in 3hrs 8. I'd read somewhere that 3 hours is the target time for a beginner. But I never let anyone know what my target would be.

So for Florence, my target is to complete in under 4 hours.

Big News

I' m now registered to run the Florence Marathon on 30th November.

This is something that came out of a quiet drink in a pub one summer evening about six weeks ago with my friend Thom Bunting. In the run-up to the Bath Tri, Thom told me about a book he'd got that outlined a plan to train for a marathon in sixteen weeks. I said that I'd be interested to read it. Later that night he sent me a text message. It's dated 12/07/08 and the message reads "Hi Ian, Found marathon training book. Wonder if you are interested in Florence marathon 30th November? Thom." And that was the beginning of that.


Here's a picture of my friend Gordon Plant. When I announced back in March that, having run the Bath Half Marathon, I was now going to attempt the Bath Olympic triathlon, Gordon's response was typically muscular. He wrote that "You must be f**king insane. But we all knew that, anyway."

I suppose the jury's out on that one. What's indisputable is the fact that, the day after my registration has been accepted, I'm already two weeks behind schedule. According to the sixteen week plan, I was supposed to start running a fortnight ago. I'm not too worried about that. A month ago I ran six miles after cycling more than twenty. But I can't leave it too long. Which is why I stuck on my running shoes this evening and ran another 2.3 miles. Each week, I'm supposed to do three runs of four or five miles plus one long run which builds up from eight to eighteen miles. So today's run - and yesterday's - are getting me ready for a long run that I'll put in on Sunday morning.

One Month On

I completed the Bath triathlon on July 27th.
And for the last month I've done nothing. I swam every day when I was away on holiday with the children. And for the last couple of weeks when I've been staying in Upton Cheyney I've been riding into and back from the office whenever the weather has allowed. And that's a round trip of about eighteen miles.But I haven't run once.

And I can feel it. There's something missing. I'm not that keen to get out of bed in the morning and I can feel myself wanting to get out and do some exercise that gets my heart going and forces me to push.

So tonight I put on my running shoes and headed off. The Simpsons was just starting on C4. It had just ended when I came back in through the front door. 2.3 miles according to Google Maps.

Shake 'em out

Here's another photo of me from Sunday. This was just as I was leaving T2. I know that because I've got a water bottle in one hand, a carbohydrate gel in the other. Since I ditched them both within the first mile of the run, I can timestamp this photo pretty accurately.

Frankly, in my 43 years on the planet, there are times that I have looked better than this. I think also that in this photo I bear more than a passing resemblance to Fernando Alonso. Only my neck's not as thick as his.

As this week has gone on, there are more and more details of last Sunday that have returned to me.

One of my favourites was the guy manning the Bike In section. As I got off the bike, he said to me "Shake 'em out".

Now three months ago, that would have meant nothing to me.

And in the intervening period, I've discovered that one of the things that inhibits your run off the bike is the blood pooling in the hams of your legs.

And one of the ways of overcoming that is to shake your legs out to get them to start working again.

It was just a small sign that I know what I'm talking about in all of this.