So, in the finest traditions of not quite getting the final preparations right for a marathon (ref: Icelandic volcanoes), I have been busy not quite getting the final preparations right for this one.
The schedule 2 weeks ago was disrupted on account of various stuff happening at home (loft insulation, cavity walls, nothing exciting...), but contained a for-once decent tempo run at Scotstoun. The planned last long-run on the Sunday had to be abandoned though, as a result of waking up and feeling absolutely grotty - a cold building, sore sinuses, terrible sore head, that sort of thing. This was a royal pain in the ass, as the one thing I felt I needed above all else was one more really long run. Ummed and aahed, almost got changed, then thought "no, don't be stupid". So, that was me finished with the long stuff and officially tapering.
Unfortunately, the cold has lingered all week. Had a good run on the 8 mile loop round the bottom of Glen Fruin on Tuesday, pushed a bit and thought I'd sweated it out of me, but then it came back. Eventually decided that I needed to get out today and get one more decently paced run in, so went round the same loop at even more of a push - fastest time round there for 6 months.
An absolutely beautiful day to be out and about, and the gradual cooling of autumn is certainly helping my level of comfort while running. In good conditions, the Glen Fruin loop is absolutely stunning, as you can probably tell from the picture here, although it is pretty hilly - with over 500ft of ascent in the run.The last few runs, starting a couple of weeks ago, have been the best in the whole training programme. I'm beginning to feel like I'm approaching a reasonable level of fitness, and I'm reasonable confident of a decent run.
On the minus side, I'm well short of total mileage - 280 in this 16 week programme compared with 450 at the same stage of London training. However, given the weeks I lost at the start and the general feeling of not particularly running well, I suppose I am in a reasonable place. Don't have the same level of tension that I did a week before London, but then I'm not stuck hundreds of miles away wondering whether the bloody volcano's going to pack it in and let me get home.
So, I leave home early on Friday morning, long, long drive down to Le Mans in one day, followed by some relaxation and collection of the race number from the Circuit on Saturday. I'll pop in here from time to time and provide an update.
One last thing. After resolutely refusing to set a target time for this race as a result of all the lost training, after the Great Scottish Run, I selected 8:30 miles as my target pace. This would give a race pace of about 3:45 which would be slightly quicker than London.
So, the target? Quicker than London. If I can do that, after all the problems I've had, I'll be ecstatic.
And, one last thing. It's exactly 51 weeks today since the "You're Running" letter arrived to say I was in the London Marathon. Today's run took me through 1000 miles of running since then. That's what I call a milestone.
Miles since entering Le Mans: 277
