Official Marathon Preparation…

Time left until the big day: 4 months, 11 days, 19 hours and 32 minutes
State of mind: Anxious…

I am starting to get very much aware that the Big Day is getting closer rapidly…133 days left…it may seem like a lot, but believe me its not!

I am committed to run it in under 4 hours, so I do need to start training a little more frequent then the current 3 times a week. I did some research and most under four hour schedules are very similar, so picked one that seemed the most interesting (read: doable) with even some cross-training recommendations, like swimming…

Actual preparations so far:

• Printed out the 5 day a week training schedule starting on 18 December
• Stuck it on the wall…
• Looked at it hopelessly and went to the pub next door…
• Looked at it again when I came back….and went to bed
• Bought a swimming suit online the next day (for the cross-training bit) somehow my current bikini didn’t seem appropriate to be used as proper attire in my local county swimming pool, it has more of a design most often seen on tropical far-away beaches, so puchased a proper racing suit.
• Tried on the swimming suit when it arrived and believe me that was a lot harder that it seems ( are they supposed to be soo tight?) and thought about it all a bit more…
• Oh and I did some actual running too… ;-)

Went out 3 times this week, 3, 4 and 5 miles respectively. And I made an interesting discovery, up till a week ago I mostly ran without music, just me and my thoughts, this week I ran with my mp3 player and actually managed to shave off vital minutes each time…so am I go faster because of the music I wonder?

Mind you, it is important to get the rhythm right, as you tend to run on the beat, well I do anyway, apparently! So with the wrong song you risk looking like a right nutter trotting along on the pavement. But if you get the rhythm of the songs to match your running pace…it is like you fly.. for me the song Little Bird of Annie Lennox makes me feel I am running supersonicly …

Must do some more planning, take care for now…
AZ