stuff and nonsense

A couple of observations on the run itself...regular readers will know that Dad died a month ago. The trip back to the UK, the cold that followed and the general disruption took a chunk out of my training; that's a bad thing. OK, the old man dying is a bad thing in itself, but this is my blog so me, me, me. So, bad though it was I did manage to draw some motivation from it. Dad was a physical training instructor (before he started throwing young blokes out of planes for the RAF) so what better way to honour his memory than finishing the Six Foot?

Now I am not a sentimental person and I don't do romantic nonsense especially well. But I had toyed with the idea of running with the wedding ring dad gave mum on a string around my neck, of punching the air and pointing to the heavens as I crossed the line. I knew I'd flog myself, had I needed to, in order to get over. This ones for you...Weird huh? As I ran through the lows, ran on my own, I entertained these thoughts some more. But when I crossed the line...gone.

So read into that what you will, and whether you or I believe it or not (I don't), if you are looking down (you're not) from up there (up where?) then Dad - that one was for you mate. You had a pretty good bash at screwing my training, but maybe you're (were) just smarter than me, and you know when I'd trained enough and I needed to rest.

So that is the nonsense, now for the stuff. Quads and ITBs are screaming at me today and although the flats and the ups are not presenting too much of a challenge the downs - and particularly the downstairs - are a right bastard today. Knees feel a bit off, but that's the ITBs. The ache has come on rather than lessened as the day has progressed, and although I did have a walk earlier to get the legs working again, I suspect I have another day or two before I loosen up.

Small price to pay. More strength work on the legs, more hills...

So I got to thinking about my training and diet. For my first big run I kept a training diary and watched what I ate and drank. Part of the motivation for my first marathon, Paris 2005, was to avoid the "Heathrow Injection", the beer kilos people tend to pile on when they move from Aus to London. I quit drinking and as I approached the big day I stopped drinking cappucinos, fearing the milk. Daft really. With each subsequent run my diet has got more relaxed. I don't eat a lot of shit anyway, but I no longer think I need to tailor or alter what I eat because of a race. Sure, I carb load for a couple of days beforehand but I eat pasta every week anyway. And Christmas pudding is just made for runners. So much fruit, so many carbs...and soooo tasty.

I've become more relaxed over my mileage too. I used to keep a careful count of the miles I was clocking but now I tend to focus more on getting in the long runs, hitting the hills and getting in some speed work. As long as I clock enough miles or enough time I'm happy. So a few runs are not completed as quickly as I'd like; no big deal, that means I clocked more time planting my feet.

I've almost completely abandoned the heart rate monitor too. I used to wear it all the time and found it invaluable when I was learning. But now I wear it less often, and don't care for it in race situations. Why would I? It's unlikely to tell me much I don't know and I think I can feel how I am doing. It's more likely to put me off than pep me up (although...what if I had used it on Saturday, what if it had told me I was 135bpm on some of the hills...would I have picked the pace up and started running? Dunno.)

Now for shoe choice. Most of my training I did in shoes designed for trail running but the run itself I did in my trusty Asics Cumulus, low to mid-range road shoes. Why? Mainly because of the river crossing. My Asics (you can assume any shoe I mention is an Asics shoe) Trubeco(sp?) are waterproof. They are a good shoe and I've done a lot of trail miles in them, but I've not been waist deep in water. Waterproof to me suggests an equal ability to keep water in as out. I did spend a bit of time thinking about it, flexed the road and the trail shope but reckoned that I've not been in a situation where a trail shoe saved me or a road shoe would not have sufficed. And, the road shoes are meshy...and that means they'll let the water out. And they did. Happy with that choice.