12 weeks and counting

Or, the problem with race pictures.

Quiet on the roads this week, as the programme scaled back into a "cutback" - less miles at an easier pace to allow some recovery in the aged frame. In the end, I pushed Monday's run quite hard because I felt good and wanted to test the legs at higher pace on top of Saturdays record miles. Also picked a couple of new routes at just over 8 miles for the other midweek runs. One of them won't see the light of day again, but the new route round Waterfoot and Eaglesham was quite fun, despite a long uphill slog for a couple of miles.

The weekend "long run" was nothing of the sort, being shorter than the midweek two on the enjoyable loop round the bottom end of Glen Fruin. To be honest, after a good night out on Friday, with plenty of beer and wine consumed, I wouldn't have fancied much more anyway.

Now, the race photograph thing. Every event has them. Hoards of photographers stalking the event and snapping the unwary. The results then available for sale as evidence of your athletic prowess. Except it doesn't work that way. For reasons unknown (to quote some band or other), they always seem to be positioned in the last mile - which is a bit of a mystery when there are so many miles available. 

Now, perhaps it's just me, but I suspect most people doing these events don't look at their finest in the last mile. In just about every photograph taken of me in these circumstances I look like I'm about to vomit, die or - to quote a colleague's memorable observation - like I've just been kicked very hard in the nuts.

Quite why I keep buying the damn things is beyond me. The thumbnails on the websites are small enough to offer you the vague hope that "Oh, that one looks like it might be OK...". Then you shell out, get the full size version and it's "No, belted in the nuts again".

Exhibits A and B, from the Great Edinburgh Run and Great Scottish Run are offered in evidence here. No sniggering at the back.

On reflection, perhaps the slightly eccentric approach to endurance athletics provided by The Mighty Deerstalker gives the best excuse for odd looking pictoral evidence. After all, after you've clambered 900ft up through trees, bombed back down through the same trees, paused briefly to rave, waded 200m through a freezing river, clambered up screes, run over rough moorland and waded through a muddy sump, you're expected to look like sh1t.

Finally to matters musical, and we're going way off-playlist into the left field this week. Yes, I know I'm only supposed to pick Playlist stuff, but it's my blog and I'll break the bloody rules if I want to.

It was my birthday on Tuesday (forty-somethingth) and I took myself off to xScape at Braehead for some snowboarding, as I attempt to recover some confidence after falling ever 17ft when I finally got outdoors at Nevis after Christmas. As ever at xScape, lots of board-appropriate music being piped in to the slope, but then something so odd that I almost fell off the poma. "Spectres" by this lot was one of my earliest ever albums, and I love this cod B-movie homage. I have never heard it in a public situation before, and it was such a bizarre place to break that duck, that it has to be "song that most caught my attention" this week.



The week's other amazement. Being asked by a supposedly professional fitness trainer at the gym how long a marathon is. FFS!

Week's summary: 4 runs, 30 miles. Long run 8.6m
January total: 146 miles
Miles since acceptance: 392

13 weeks and counting

Or, welcome new readers.

Of whom, hopefully, there will be a few this week after I mail-bombed the office with an appeal for sponsorship. A lot of very generous donations, and if any of you have made it here, Thank You again for your support.

It's fairly relaxed here, you'll find. I babble on for a while about dull running stuff (it's a blog about running and training for a marathon, what else did you expect to see from your Torquay hotel room window?) and then lob in a random selection from one of the playlists that drive me around the highways and byways of South Lanarkshire. Abide by these few simple rules, and we'll get along just fine.

To matters. A new term for the non-running-obsessed this week - The Tempo Run. Essentially a warm-up and cool-down sandwiching a few miles run at a set and moderately challenging pace - 4.5 at 7:10/mile. Other than that it was standard Recovery on Monday and Pace on Thursday.

The Long Slow Run this week was an extension of my "other" Helensburgh standard, the Glen Fruin loop, now extended to 15.6 miles by taking in the end of "high" road through the Glen - the one built to take the nuclear missiles to Coulport, and voted one of the top driving roads in Britain by Top Gear.

Weather was odd. Standing at the front of the house waiting for the loan Garmin (thanks Paul) to acquire satellites (which needs to be read in a Bond-villain accent, I feel), down to the river and off to the left was foggy and 100 yard visibility but right was clear. Once into the Glen, the mist passed and it was glorious. Breaking out onto the new bit of the run, there's a viewpoint overlooking Faslane, and the majesty of the temperature inversion was clear. A low ribbon of mist hung over the water with the surrounding hills clear. Even the cranes and sheds at the base looked eerie, wrapped in the mist.

Having the Garmin was a real boon. Last week, I got a bit of a tweeting-off from @Sall_y and @IanM1963 because my Long Slow was too fast (insert your own entendre here), but this week I was able to pace it better at between 8:35 to 8:40 all the way round. Worked, too, as I even had some energy left not to die in the last uphill 2 miles. I also discovered a new technique for working out if you're running slowly enough. Can you sing along (out loud, of course) to Incident on 57th Street.

Been wrestling with the musical theme. In further twitterings with Sally and Ian this week, an appreciation of "Emergency" Andy Williams was uncovered, and it set me thinking. My Dad, who I've been talking about quite a bit this week, wasn't really bothered about music - to the extent that I can only really remember him playing 2 songs - Solitaire by Andy and Rhinestone Cowboy by Glenn Campbell, both of which mean quite a lot to me as a result.

I was going to put these 2 together, but then something happened. As I approached Rhu today, I rounded a corner and had caught the mist up. The low sun backlit the jetties of the Rosslea hotel thought the mist, and the Rosneath peninsula shimmered elusively through it across the Gare Loch. A real "feck-me" moment. Then the first bars of this started:



This is simply one of my favourite songs ever. Atmospheric, uplifting and another brilliant use of Rob Harvey's voice. I know I used The Music last week too, but it just had to be. Know the quality on this YouTube embed's not great, so here's the Spotify link too. Not got Spotify for all this week's links? - I still have invites if anyone wants one.

Week's summary: 4 runs, 35 miles: Long Run 15.6m
Miles since acceptance: 362

14 weeks and counting

Or, welcome to reality

The first week of actually following what the training programme said. Except, of course I couldn't resist a tinker. While I did the scheduled runs "by the book" - recovery, pace, speedwork and of course "long slow", I had already noted the lack of "hills" in the programme.

To clarify, as anyone who knows Helensburgh and / or East Kilbride will be screaming "but there's hundreds of bloody hills", doing hills is one of the more arcanely torturous training sessions. It basically involves finding a moderate incline of around 200m, running up it hard-ish, jogging back down for recovery and then repeating a dozen or so times.

Having a "Rest or Cross Dress (sorry, Train)" option on Tuesday, I decided to lob in an extra hill session. In hindsight, combining it with speedwork (reasonable pace warm-up, run 6:35 mile, recovery jog, run 6:35 mile, recovery to finish) on Wednesday was probably a mistake. Legs starting to object, and I'd started to realise how hard this is going to be to do properly. Therefore I couldn't really be arsed with Thursday's "pace" run - just run at target marathon pace - but did it anyway and although it was the first time I've ever done 4 consecutive days of serious running, I actually felt OK.

The long run this week was the latest extension to my growing Loch Lomond sightseeing experience. Having started out as a 10.5 miler, then been extended to 13, it now weighs in at 14.7. The exact length is basically determined by the location of convenient spots where Mrs T can wait and pick me up (the run always starting with the train to Arrochar). And it was broadly what the programme said. Next extensions will be to Cameron House (16m) and then the biggie. All the way home - 19m, with the last 3 featuring some nasty hills.

Fortunately the horrible overnight weather had eased, and although there was plenty of rain & drizzle about, the wind had gone. This meant I could use my Under Armour base layer (have I mentioned how much I love Under Armour) rather than the Wind-Stopper. This is good as the Wind-Stopper, good though it is at deflecting the wind, is not quite as snug and therefore leads to some (apologies if you're eating) chaffing in the nipple region - addressable only by a vigorous pre-run Vaselining. Not a fun experience. Obviously.

Anyway, I plodded along at a steady and comfortable pace and was pleased to note that despite the extra miles this week, my legs were not tightening quite as much as they have been at the end of previous runs of this length. Perhaps there's something to this "follow a programme" lark. It really isn't just a matter of going out and doing some running, which is essentially what I'd been doing before.

To matters musical. As with last week, the original Long Run playlist has been revived, and is now up to 20 songs - still all by The Killers, The Music or The Boss. When I was having my mid-week confidence dip, this seemed an apt title:



Not usually a fan of the YouTube "create my own video over the top of some song or other" fashion, but as a fan of photography, I have to say this features some excellent stuff.

I can't end without a big thank you to the contributors this week. I published the start of my fund-raising activities to Facebook and Twitter, and some very generous people have left some very generous donations. So here's a big Thank You.

Week's summary: 5 runs, 37 miles: Long run 14.7m
Miles since acceptance: 327

15 weeks and counting

Or, the week the fannying around stopped (with apologies to McDonald & McIntyre)

So, this was when the 16-week training programme kicked in. The one I'm to stick to religiously. Erm. Right. It went something like this.

Monday - programme says 5m. Mrs. T says "we're going to Stirling"
Tuesday - programme says "Rest or Cross-Train". Mark does 7m
Wednesday - programme says 6m speedwork. Mark says "off to Edinburgh for Scott's surprise party"
Thursday - programme says 5m steady. Mark says "on the way back from Edinburgh"
Friday - programme says "Rest or Cross-Train". Mark does 7m

So far, so bad. To be fair, it was more a rearrangement around events than a deliberate ignoring of the schedule, but *not* a good start. The two midweek runs around what's becoming a firm favourite winter route were amazing. Fresh snow on Tuesday and desperately cold with freezing fog on Friday. The run rose to just above the fog level though, giving an eerie scene - backlit by a low sun - of trees and hills wreathed or just emerging. Beautiful.

Got things back on track with a 14.5 mile run today; a bit longer than the programme called for, but there aren't many options open in the current weather. Did the loop round Glen Fruin, but anti-clockwise this time, avoiding the bastard mile of 600 ft up from Faslane - coming up from the Glen is shorter with much less ascent. It does, however, mean the last 2 miles are pretty much all uphill from the seafront home, which was a bit of a challenge with yesterday's 7 miles still in the legs. Nice run, though, in occasional snow flurries, and the hills at the end will be good for the legs.

Went back to my original playlist for this week's run, and going to go with the song which sets me off. No decent videos from this summer's Hampden gig, so I'll revert to my Barcelona DVD...



For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.

Love it.

Finally, the programme for Sunday offers "Rest or Cross Train". Finally going to do something 100% by the book - guess which one...

Week's summary: 3 runs, 28 miles : Long run 14.5 miles
Miles since acceptance: 290

16 weeks and counting

Or, running in a winter wonderland

Brief weekly update to augment the end-of-year review below. Yes it's still cold - the snow that fell 2 weeks ago is still hanging round, with no sign of a thaw in temperatures struggling to get above freezing. It's making conditions on regular paths "challenging" - or "life threatening" on the one up through the woods to the skating pond that starts a few of my runs.

This meant another 2 laps round the golf course for the Saturday run; still between 4-6" of snow everywhere but slightly slushier under a crisp and icy top layer. Decided to risk further afield today, with the 8-miler that loops out of town and through the top of Glen Fruin. First 3 miles on paths varying between suicidal (see above) and crunchy, then 4 miles on clear roads before the last mile returned to the paths and featured yet another scary slither back through the woods. Weather was clear, sunny, and -3C at the start.

Out in the country the views were spectacular, with something to enjoy in every direction - Arran particularly stunning down the Clyde. Not worrying about pace, just really enjoying the run and conditions - although I suspect air-drumming isn't an accepted running technique. It was that sort of glad-to-be-out day. And the song that provoked the reaction:



Laboured somewhat over the video to choose. Official? From Teignmouth? The one from Italian TV where they objected to being asked to mime, so they all swapped instruments? Amazingly, and something I don't think I've said since 1986, this version from the Christmas TOTP works best for me.

Week's summary: 4 runs, 26 miles: Long run "fore"
Miles since acceptance 262