Thursday, 29 September 2011

Its that time of year when the old London Marathon Mag comes through the door!

Its that time of year...am I in or am I not in?   I decided not to enter 2012 London Marathon through the ballot and chase a qualifying time which I acheived at Chester way back in May (74.47 for the Half) so all the talk about Marathon Magazine (Congratulations vs Comiserations) are passing me by.

I last did the London Marathon in 2000 and throroughly enjoyed the experience finishing in a modest 2-48.56....at the finish I was in quite a bit of pain and ended up not running for six weeks or more as I recovered from a hamstring injury.   I've since entered in the ballot a few times and been unsucessful then got in for 2009 only to be struck down with sciatica early January and not run a step (apart from a few "test jogs" for a good six weeks.   Deferred my entry for 2010 only to get knocked off my bike and ruin the winter training (essential for a good marathon).   2011 I didn't bother entering thinking I would save myself for a big effort to get in as a vet in 2012.

I like the idea of doing a marathon again (have only done two with my last one in 2005).   Trouble is I dont mind the training but have had such a great year this year with going well in the relays, returning to the track for some 5000s and making some great progress again over 5km and 10km that I think a Marathon will take over my running focus from January to May (given a decent build up and adequate recovery) that I will miss the opportunity to have a decent crack at the shorter stuff early in the year.

Tonights session was a bit of the short sharp stuff to make a change from the longer intervals and tempo type efforts that have been the focus over the past few weeks.   Forgot how tough a 12 x 400m session is!   A reminder that you need to keep a bit of short stuff in your schedule every now and again.   Not a spectacular session but averaged around 75 seconds (5 min miling) for the majority of efforts.   Felt like summer was back - hard to think the cross country season starts a week on Sunday!   Now where are those spikes!

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