CBA

7 miles. Should have been 13. Got cold and bored.

Compromise

I've got myself tangled up here.
I'm in London Tues and Weds next week, the days of my long run. And the kids are with me this weekend.

I'm supposed to have done 4 miles yesterday and 6 tomorrow. So instead I got up early, while Rona and Paddy were able to provide babysitting cover, and ran 5.

5.2 miles at 9.11 a mile.

I found myself at Morrisons at 8.02am, buying dog biscuits.

Now there's a first.

Running Into The Dark

12 miles tonight.

First time that I've run with Thom Bunting. He's the guy whose idea this was in the first place.
Great. Like sitting in the pub chatting.

And when I told my mum I was doing this marathon, her line was
"Why are you doing that?"

22nd September

This evening I ran 4.01 and then did a bit more.

This was to make up for last night when I was supposed to run 6 and I ran 5.8.

5 miles

So much for writing about stuff other than training.

Out to The George in the autumn sunshine. 5 miles

Tuesday

First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.

Epictetus

I don't want this blog simply to be a dry account of pratice runs completed. I was standing in Waterstones looking at a triathlon book. Next to it was a training diary with a number of quotes in it. This one really sprang to my eye. I'm writing this before I head out for this week's long run - 11miles due. Now, once upon a time, six months ago, that was a huge distance. It still is. But it was also far beyond my ken. The first time that I ran 11 miles was the Bath Half marathon. Somehow, it doesn't seem quite as daunting as it once did. There's another quote, a Japanese proverb that I grabbed out of this morning's Times newspaper - "Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it." I'm not going to pass judgement on whether giving birth is easy or not (from first hand experience, I'd say that it isn't.) But I think I get the point of this.

(Update)
Back in.

11 miles done. Slow tonight, 10mins 20 per mile average. REALLY hurt.

4 miles plus, avg 9 min miles

I left the house just after the headlines about the collapse of Lehman Brothers on the evening news. Within minutes of starting, the story seemed so far away.

I still struggle with the beginning of each run. The first mile or so always feels like impossibly hard work and I wonder whether I can continue or not. Then the rythmn appears and I can keep going.

I reckon that there is a base level of fitness that people start to acquire when they want to get fit. Above that, there is a really high degree of almost superhuman fitness that is a mixture of genetics and way above average commitment (remember the morning at Bath University pool where I spotted the size 14 green flip flops that had been left by the side of the pool by someone who'd been training since 6am).
And in between those two points, it's all down to the mind.