Wednesday 30 March 2011

Time Goes Slowly

Remember when you were a child waiting for Christmas? You knew it was getting closer, you opened a new window on your advent calendar every morning, but once you got within a couple of weeks time seemed to slow down, like there were 40 hours in every day.

On a similar theme I can't believe its only Wednesday morning.

Essentially the training is all done and, aside from tapering (which is by nature a passive 'activity'), all there is left to do is wait. And wait. And wait.

I can't even summon up much enthusiasm for the remaining runs. Yesterday the plan said 8 miles steady but I decided to reduce it to 6.5. In the event I ran a contrived 6.04 miles, felt sluggish, uninterested and slow. I know that's all symptomatic of the taper and has no bearing on marathon performance but its disappointing in itself.

Hopefully today's very short mixed intervals session will prove a bit more stimulating. Similar with Friday's tempo run. Sunday's (short) long run might be a bit dull so I may opt to throw in a couple of marathon pace miles at the end just to keep me interested.

Had a little think last night about if/when for the next marathon. It'll be a when rather than an if as if I miss 3:30 I'll feel I have unfinished business, and if I hit it I'll be sure I could get to 3:15 with more training and the loss of the lbs I didn't lose for this one. The big question is whether I'd go for another marathon this year; whether I'd feel mentally 'up' for doing it all again. There are some advantages though. I'd carry some of this training with me, I'd have established a good base, there would be no running to fit in with ice, snow and very short days. We'll see.

3 comments:

Maria said...

Woah onto the next one already!
Is this the taper madness talking?
Although there are marathons in the autumn so you would have time to recover and then build on your training...
:)

Alison said...

I guess it's natural to be "thinking about thinking about" another one, but keep it at that for now eh. The real decision will be weeks after Paris.

And no miles at MP this Sunday! Suffer the boredom and save your legs.

Jessica said...

Tapers would drive me insane...probably correlates with the fact that I was the kid that rummaged about in cupboards searching out her xmas presents then pretended to be surprised on the day. Mind you, my parents are staunch atheists and would disconnect the pressies from the whole Jesus-gig, so I was somewhat confused as a child anyway ;)

Looking forward to seeing which marathon you decide to tackle next, should the mood take you!

xxx