Starting again

133 days until the London marathon.

My blogs have been sporadic since my last marathon, so here's a quick summary of the past year. My goal was a half-ironman distance triathlon in August, and to that end I swam (mostly), ran, and biked (occasionally), and, well, I finished. It was good, and I think with more biking and running miles in the bank, I could run a better race. The year I spent training for this has coloured my training perspective now, and I've retained swimming as an upper-body work-out. There's something satisfying about being swim-fit. Also, this keeps my options open for some shorter distance triathlons next summer.

But next year's "A" goal is the marathon.

Psychologically, I haven't started training for it yet, although this week could be considered Week 1 of 20-week training cycle. I've chosen the New York City Marathon Official Program for training, although I will modify it as I go.

So, this has been my week:

Monday: Run 4 miles on the track (7:44 - 7:58) pace (tired from 8-miler on Sunday)
Tues: basketball for 1.5 hours; swim 500m to cool off after
Weds: off
Thurs: swim 900m; run 5 miles on track (7:05 - 7:42 pace)
Friday: off
Saturday: 6.5 mile run, some on trails
Sunday: 9 mile run, mostly on trails (1:29 total)

So, with the jog down to the track and conservative estimations of my mileage, I think this was a 25-mile week.

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The week before last I had a long weekend backpacking in the Grand Canyon, on my return from a work trip. And now, back in dark Scotland, I still day-dream about my nights sleeping out.