Another 13 miles

Bad weather and still achy legs decided me against running today. Instead, had a strenuous walk through the Wintry Woods and have now just done 13 miles (20k) on the exercise bike. Amazing how easy it is to cycle a distance that takes me 1 hr 45 or so to run. Really must get out for an easy run in the next day or so. Something off road would be good, so my knees don't take too much of a hammering - my right knee was sore on Sunday's long run and started hurting again towards the end of this evening's cycle.

Caffeine kick?

Forgot to say that I tried the High5 gels with added caffeine on Sunday. I took an ordinary (ie no caffeine) gel at about 55 and 75 mins, then a caffeine one at about 95 and 115 mins.

Hard to know if the caffeine had any effect. It didn't upset my stomach, but I didn't feel any great boost (though the way I felt on Sunday's run, I'd have needed Paula Radcliffe's legs and/or lungs to give me a lift; it wasn't one of my better days!).

Oddly, after getting home, bathing, eating etc, I ended up working at the pc until 10.45 pm, which is late for me. Maybe that was the caffeine at work!

It's Lucozade gels at the Marathon, but I'm not forking out on them - I'll take some High5s with me and then use the Lucozade ones when they run out.

Thinking about animals

Today's Start the Week with Andrew Marr has an interesting item on the new book 'Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals' by Jonathan Balcombe, which argues that animals are no less sentient than human beings and that it is time for us to stop feeling superior and adopt instead a more humble, less oppressive relationship with them.

A tough 17.5 miles

I dragged myself out this morning, with my legs complaining they didn't want to go, and ran 17.5 miles in 2 hours 34 minutes.

Disappointing, as I'd hoped to do 18 miles in about 2.24, but my legs were aching all the way round and they really didn't like the hilly bits, which rather slowed me down.

Even on the relatively flat course, I climbed 1,295 feet, which is rather more than I'm expecting to have to manage in London. As I also dropped 1,283 feet, I averaged 8.48 per mile pace - which is good enough to get me in under the Marathon target of 3 hours 40.

So I'll have a few days rest before the next run, to let my little legs recover. Though with bad weather forecast, limiting my exercise to dog-walking, table tennis, and using the exercise bike might not be such a bad thing.

Don't ever think that marathon training is easy. It isn't. There's lots of days I'd rather give the training a miss - it's just too much like hard work!

Run postponed

Not the marathon of course - just today's long training run, which has now been put off until tomorrow morning.

Have had some exercise today though, cos we took Lucy to the woods for a run through the leaves and mud.

Good to see that there's now an item about the Marathon on Capricorn's website.

A new lot of energy gels arrived by post this morning. Decided to give the High5 gel with caffeine a go and will try it on tomorrow's 18 mile outing.

Disgrace

Last night, I finished reading - for the second time - J. M. Coetzee’s novel ‘Disgrace’. Set in post-apartheid South Africa, it charts the fall of a white academic following an affair with a student. Amongst the unexpected turns his life takes, the main character finds himself working for a small, under-resourced animal rescue organisation.

He has never been fond of animals; his volunteering is a penance. Yet working with them - especially in their last moments - brings some change in him: 

Of the dogs in the holding pens, there is one he has come to feel a particular fondness for. It is a young male with a withered left hindquarter which it drags behind it. [...] No visitor has shown an interest in adopting it. Its period of grace is almost over; soon it will have to submit to the needle. 

Will he save the dog? It is in his power to do so, but that would be an improbable ending to such a dark tale. Instead, he wonders how the dog might see things, how it might react to the (almost) inevitable fate awaiting him: 

What the dog will not be able to work out [...], what his nose will not tell him, is how one can enter what seems to be an ordinary room and never come out again. Something happens in this room, something unmentionable: here the soul is yanked out of the body; briefly it hangs about in the air, twisting and contorting; then it is sucked away and is gone. It will be beyond him, this room that is not a room but a hole where one leaks out of existence.

Powerful stuff ...

Less secs

Today's run was exactly the same route as yesterday's, but I ran the 3.92 miles 40 seconds faster. Wow! And on an empty stomach ...

Average pace was 7.40 and fastest was 6.13. Even on this relatively flat course, I climbed 377 feet and dropped 381 - though not all in one go!

Unusual for me to run the same route on consecutive days, but it was really a question of dragging myself out for something that wouldn't take too long, and the 30 mins or so was just about right.

Need to feed myself up now on carbs ahead of Saturday's longer outing.

Thoughts on Thursday

Will try to do a shortish run again today, then have a day off on Friday before a long run (hopefully 16+ miles) on Saturday.

That's the plan anyway - I was supposed to be taking the tent into the hills for two nights, but the weekend forecast isn't good, and I'll do better putting my energy into Marathon training.

Getting faster

Today's run was just under 4 miles, but at times I was running at about 6.30 minute mile pace. My aim for the Marathon is to run 8 minute miles for as long as I can.

During the bad weather, I was doing long runs of 2 - 2 1/2 hours, but at a slow pace - taking 10 or 11 mins to run a mile.

Since then I've been putting more effort into picking up my speed - though the hilly terrain round here means it's difficult to find long flattish stretches to practice on.

London Marathon

I'm running the London Marathon on 25 April - my 53rd birthday.

With just 31 days to go til the big day, I thought I'd best try and attract a bit more attention for my chosen charity - Capricorn Animal Rescue.

My fundraising page could do with some more visits - and donations.

I'd intended to have the page ready a couple of months ago, but problems with the registration process for Capricorn slowed everything down, and the page didn't go live until 21 March, leaving me with relatively little time to get the money rolling in.

Fingers crossed that everyone who's promised to sponsor me actually will now that they've got the chance!