A fresh start.

Here goes. First, welcome to anyone who may ever be sad and lonely enough to read this.

The marathon plan has a reasonable mileage base from the last 6 months. I started out in the Bikilas in mid-August 2010, and they've just notched up 400km. The transition from shoes was slow and extremely painful - about 3 months in total till I recorded my first "floating" run - when the technique finally clicked. So the minimalist thing is still pretty new. There's no doubt all sorts of muscles are still adjusting to the new torment.

The running has been less than imaginative of late - the flat smooth paths following the Swan River are an easy way to get around and chew up miles, but not a hill in sight. The bridge layout offers a range of loops - 7km / 12.5km and 20.5km, with extra small loops available when it feels good.

Programming:

I have elected to combine several published programs and work in some of my own experience to create a program to fill the 35 weeks till the City to Surf Marathon – August 28^th. The key source is a paper from Tony Benson and his EPS training groups (www.benson.com.au) The program includes 15 weeks from now of "Basic" Conditioning, followed by 10 weeks of "General", then the final 10 weeks of "Specific" Conditioning. Every 3rd week is a recovery week, incorporating a "test" run - a short burst which will chart improvement and set limits for the following fortnight. More on the program shortly.
Following a program with work and the kid will take some adjusting, but here goes.....

Today’s Session:

What a difference a day makes…

Yesterday (New Year’s Day) was run in shoes. It was intended to be a long, meandering run, up to 22km to the Narrows, but ended up being a dreadful 10km struggle. The combination of the shoes and Christmas cheer made the run feel like lugging a bag of yoghurt around on a pair of very brittle sticks - all the dullness that running had begun to offer up in the last years – sore knees, sore hips, and crushed-up toes.

Today’s run then became the long one – 20km around the Swan River. Apart from feet sweating and rubbing in the heat (started out too early again), it was a reasonable run, though tonight I feel like I’ve just run a race half – stuffed.

This week sees me sans kid, so, apart from a spot of fishing for dinner, this week sets the stage for a year of discipline. First will be early bedtimes, then big breakfasts (tend to run out of fuel during the day), some morning runs and full work days without the sideline jobs (much more fun but not what I'm meant to be doing). Luckily, my favourite local cafe is closed for another week, so the opportunity to learn to love the espresso machine in the office is unavoidable.
If you're going to change stuff, may as well do it all at once. It might just work.


Aaaah. A last thought on that pesky marathon goal. To work toward a finish time, or just to finish? Way back when running was easy, I would've thought 2:45, 2:30..... sure! Now it's a very different story. Best to work on this one toward the end of the "Basic" training.