Thursday 11 March 2010

Training for my qualifying marathon



It's just beginning to feel like spring. It's still below freezing at night, but the sun is up much earlier, and it contains real warmth. There's still some snow in the mountains here, and the trees are still bare. But spring feels likes its ready to burst through any time.

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Last month I ran the Carnethy 5, a popular hill race in the Pentland hills outside of Edinburgh. I was pleased to shave a few minutes off of my previous year's time. Also, as shown in the photo, I managed to catch a guy who passed me a few minutes earlier.

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73 days until the Edinburgh Marathon. In it, I'm hoping to run a 3:30, and qualify for next year's Boston Marathon. I've been upping the mileage of my long run on the weekend, but still feel like I should be out there more. Tonight I was keen to run, but my wife is out and so I'm confined to the house with my sleeping children.

Tomorrow (Friday) maybe I can sneek in a 10-mile loop on The Road before I have to be home (child-care again), and then I should be able to get in a long run on Saturday as well. Back-to-back long runs aren't ideal, but I likely won't actually make one of these runs long.

I'm starting to be consumed by miles.

Next week is the Alloa half-marathon. Then I rapidly ramp up to 20 miles for my long runs, and, after three of these (on alternate weekends), I begin tapering.

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