New York Marathon – 12 Weeks to go
This just got real. Only 12 weeks to go until the big day. That’s not long.
I am going into the last 12 weeks of training without injuries, lighter than I was on race day for the Manchester Marathon in April, and with over half of my fundraising completed. But there’s still a lot of training still to do, a lot of hill repeats, a lot of long runs, recovery runs, early morning easy runs followed by evening pickups, and lots of functional exercises!
My favourite session of the week is always Monday evening. The plan is always the same – 20-30 mins of easy running, followed by 30-40 minutes of functional exercises. The run is always around Rossie Priory, just along the road from my house, and a lovely place to run around – the best part is that I manage to drag my 15 year old son with me for that run each week. We chat about all sorts of things on that run – it’s an easy run, no targets, nothing to chase, just time out in the fresh air with child #1, catching up on whatever is in his brain. And when I get back, child #2, currently age 12 going on 24, comes into the gym with me when I do my functional exercises – he sits on his bike on the turbo trainer, and we watch nonsense on Netflix, or chat about anime, or music, or ‘whatever’. He usually finishes up before I have to do the Bulgarian squats, but it’s a great 20 minutes or so.
The long runs can be lonely – 20 miles on a Sunday morning, often in the wind and rain, and sometimes I don’t see a soul before 10 miles in. I listen to audiobooks for the long runs that have no targets – the earphones I use allow the background noise to come through to my ears so I can still hear traffic (not that there is any, usually, but it’s best to be able to hear it when it is there) and oncoming cyclists, etc. Typical audiobook 8 to 10 hours, so I get through a decent chunk on a 20 mile run.
This year so far I have run 1,140km, cycled 1,654km. I might reach 2000 km running by the end of the year. Another pair of running shoes required, I think.
Tonight is the Ceres 8 mile race. It looks lumpy. At least it’s not raining.
My hopes are not particularly high for a quick time, but I’m looking forward to racing again, having not raced for nearly a month. I’ll just see how it goes.
****UPDATE****
The elevation map does not do the course justice. Lumpy, I thought earlier. Hilly, it turns out. Very hilly. Over 700 feet of climbing all told.
This was literally the only flat bit of the race. 53:16, 36th overall (I swear I overtook the guy in 35th on the line), and 4th fastest in the club. Actually very happy with the time, given the terrain. Legs are going to be sore tomorrow, though!