THE TAPER CAPER
Eek. The day before the day before the Yorkshire Three Peaks Race 2016. Rightly or wrongly, probably wrongly, my last truly punishing run was a distant seventeen days ago when I decided to go out and bash a half marathon distance quite hard on the road before going away on hols. Whilst away in the welcome warmth of the Mediterranean I managed to get a few glorious coastal runs in and yesterday was still only the fourth day this year without slipping on a pair of running shoes. I've not done more than six or seven miles at a time though lately. A nuisance-value head cold has put the reins on things. This week I'm pottering with steady three or four milers. It feels wrong. I feel like I should be out there getting more miles in. Last Sunday I felt fresh and in pretty good shape and so once again, Warning: Boring stat attack... I ran five miles inside 35 minutes with such enjoyable ease that my recovery was pretty much instant. From the heady (for me) average weekly mileage of 46 I have slipped down to 28 and then 25. This week I will have run a paltry 13 miles or so going in to Saturday's race. It's difficult knowing what to do really. Have I dropped off too much? Should I really have been scrambling up and thundering down Mearley Clough as recently as Monday night? Have I done the miles but not done the sessions - only twice surpassing the twenty mile mark and nudging in to double figures on only nine other occasions? Should I have done more climbing? The endless if's and but's. It's not just about getting round around the course for me. I'm confident of that. It's the goal, two goals in fact that are making me tetchy on Three Peaks Eve-Eve. I want to beat my course best of 3.44 - I want to get in to 'first class' certification which requires a sub-3.40, frame that little scrap of paper that would say so to once and for all put this race to bed. But what I actually do need to do right now is just shut the bloody hell up and relax!
Thursday, 28 April 2016
Saturday, 9 April 2016
MILESTONE
Warning: Stat boredom is about to commence... it was an innocuous, aimless, loopy three mile jaunt around Clitheroe with tired legs. Nothing inspiring, nothing much worthy of mention aside from the completion of 100 days of consecutive running in 2016. The great Ron Hill has gone over fifty years running every single day. But I'm not great and I'm no Ron Hill, so for me who had previously barely scratched more than a weeks worth of continuous running at a time, this was a noteworthy milestone. It was also a statement of intent to myself that unlike previous build ups to the Three Peaks race, I was putting in some groundwork this time around. Again, not in the class of the classier, but significant by own standards of typical mileage. 100 days has covered just shy of 657 miles and averaged out at a 46 mile week. Just a single 40 something week would have stood out as a heavy loaded one in previous preparations, whilst in ten years of running, only twice or three times have I surpassed the half century mark in a week's mileage and this year I have done that on five occasions (well, six if we can include a 49.4) There goes another stat attack. I'm getting a bit obsessed with this mileage logging, I freely admit.
With just over three weeks until race day I have, as previously noted, avoided the temptation of any other races and can't regret that because here I am, fit and still running every day. With a family week away booked on the Maltese island of Gozo, day 103 is going to be the first run-less one of the year - provided we are on time at the airport that is. Last time we ventured by air, to Italy, there was an intense 600 metre dash to the terminal and we only just made it on board.
Warning: Stat boredom is about to commence... it was an innocuous, aimless, loopy three mile jaunt around Clitheroe with tired legs. Nothing inspiring, nothing much worthy of mention aside from the completion of 100 days of consecutive running in 2016. The great Ron Hill has gone over fifty years running every single day. But I'm not great and I'm no Ron Hill, so for me who had previously barely scratched more than a weeks worth of continuous running at a time, this was a noteworthy milestone. It was also a statement of intent to myself that unlike previous build ups to the Three Peaks race, I was putting in some groundwork this time around. Again, not in the class of the classier, but significant by own standards of typical mileage. 100 days has covered just shy of 657 miles and averaged out at a 46 mile week. Just a single 40 something week would have stood out as a heavy loaded one in previous preparations, whilst in ten years of running, only twice or three times have I surpassed the half century mark in a week's mileage and this year I have done that on five occasions (well, six if we can include a 49.4) There goes another stat attack. I'm getting a bit obsessed with this mileage logging, I freely admit.
With just over three weeks until race day I have, as previously noted, avoided the temptation of any other races and can't regret that because here I am, fit and still running every day. With a family week away booked on the Maltese island of Gozo, day 103 is going to be the first run-less one of the year - provided we are on time at the airport that is. Last time we ventured by air, to Italy, there was an intense 600 metre dash to the terminal and we only just made it on board.
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