Author: Buck

We went to Spain for a week and that was nice. While we there all sorts of shenanigans broke out in the UK. The last time we went over we left the UK all was normal, we came back a week later and the supermarkets were empty, the streets were desolate and it looked like a post apocalyptic film set. This time we left the UK goose-stepping into totalitarian fascism with no hope of ever escaping the Tory/nazi deathgrip on democracy. By the time we were flying back we were expecting to be greeted by banners saying “Welcome to the Glorious Worker’s Republic of Corbynistan, comrades!” While we were over there mother text me to tell me Lisa’s car was dangerously unfit for purpose. The steering is all over the place. We’d told Lisa that we’d get her a new car when she needed one, but she hadn’t told us. When I said about her steering she said “It’s alright. I just don’t go on fast roads.” Incredible. I know she was just trying not to spend our money, which is thoughtful, but dumb. So dumb. She could have gotten herself killed. Anyway, we had some savings put aside for such an eventuality, and I’d already done a lot of research into which would be a good car for her, so we got her a Hyundai i10. They’re a little, city, runaround. They will do 105mph, but they are for tootling around town, really. Small, easy to drive and park, reliable, good spec and cute, apparently. Sorry about the arrows, I had to screenshot the advert and couldn’t crop them out. It arrived today on a flatbed. Lisa has been fit to pop from excitement so we went around to see the big moment. Here it is arriving on a flatbed. Here is Lisa watching it arrive on a flatbed, lol. She’s a very happy bunny. So that’s great. Big shout out to Wendy. I wanted to get Lisa a fairly decent car, one that would hopefully last her for years. That wasn’t dirt cheap. It’s Wendy’s money as well, and it’s not her sister, but she totally wanted Lisa to have it. She was saying tonight that we are privileged to be in the position where we can help people out. The love of money is the root of all evil, and all that. Happily (due to my condition) it’s never really had a hold on me (spend it if we’ve got it, don’t if we ain’t) but good on her for stepping up. Lisa was so happy it was a treat to watch. I’ve waited until after my marathon to post this so I can update it a bit. Lisa has been having issues with the car. She stalled it 3 times on the way to work on her first day in it. She was still stalling it today, 4 days later, so I went out with her to have a look. It does take a bit of […]

Wendy had to start taking some of her holidays so we both booked a week off work. Wendy promptly came down with covid. So that’s lovely. Obviously I followed suit. She came over all ill on Tuesday, I had to get a test kit, but she tested positive as soon as it arrived on Friday, I tested positive the day after. It’s dragging it’s feet. It’s Monday and I tested positive again today. Wendy’s barking a lot and has had painful ears and throat, and feels grotty. It’s making her low. I’ve only got a light dose. I feel a bit weak and tired and I’ve got a persistent tickle. The worst thing for me is trying to sleep. I’m having to prop myself upright because when I lie down I’m constantly swallowing and coughing. My funky new watch monitors everything I do, I’m not sure how accurate it is about monitoring sleep, but it said I had 21 minutes deep sleep last night, 5 hours 22 light sleep. I don’t know the ins and outs, but I am knackered for sure. Up until today I’ve been bad trying to sleep, but when I get up and get dosed up, it becomes tolerable, and I get bored, so I’ve been out for my runs. Today is my long/ fast run day, the plan says to do 16 miles, 12 of them at marathon pace (6.50). If I was doing that I decided I wanted to focus my mind and go all out for a half marathon and set a huge new PB instead. Neither of those options seems achievable today. By now (13.25hrs) my boredom has been outweighing my illness and I’ve been going for a run, today I’m just too, too tired. Fail day, I fear. I was kind of relieved to get it now, I was scared I was going to get it on race week or something, but I need it gone now. This is not convenient. My fitness is probably going to take a bit of hit with the lung thing, I need to get back to it. Meh. I’m too tired to concentrate. Later, Buck.

I’ve been looking at several race predictors and the science is that you lose 8% off your time when you double the distance. So I absolutely have to be 1.25 for a half to stand a chance. That’s 6.30 pace for the distance. Right. I’m through with waiting for improvement. This week my plan is I’m resting today. I’ll do the easy trots tomorrow. The 5x 1200m I’ll do as an 11 mile run with a flat out 5K race. I’ll do slow runs (8m/m) for the next two. I might skip the recovery run. Then I’m going to do a test half. I’m going to go out at 6.30 and just try and hold. It’s 15 seconds per mile more than I have done previously. If I’m rested, absolutely determined, and prepared to accept the pain, I might be able to do it. I’ve just looked, my last half was 1.29:06. I ran a 1.29:05 in April. If I discount the Garmin blip of that 1.26, I’ve not made any gains in 5 months. That just can’t be right. My speed and fitness have to be loads better. I think it’s my capacity to push and suffer that has taken a kicking with Camille’s plan. Watch this space. I’m through with this shit.

It’s all getting very real now. I’ve got just under 7 weeks until my race. I did a quick blog last week moaning that I didn’t think I could do it. As I was writing it, the solution occurred to me: up the pace. It sounds obvious, but I was doing Camille’s plan after Garmin fooled me into thinking I was a lot faster than I actually am. That left me behind on my training. Then I panicked and went back to Advanced Marathoning plan but that says “do the long runs at marathon pace +10- 20%”. Which works, but I’ve no longer got the time to gradually build up my fitness. I remembered, as I was doing the blog, that when I started the plan it was after 2 months of no running. All the different run times (medium, fast, easy) were all the same to me because that was all I had. I set aspirational times and worked towards them, even though it nearly killed me. Within 8 weeks I had set an new half marathon PB. So what I’ve done is bump up all my run times. My long, fast run used to be 7.30 – 8.12, it’s now 6.50 – 7.15. my new watch finally arrived. I was waiting and going insane, checking my email and the order status several times a day. They said I had to wait 3 -5 weeks for stock to come in. After 4 weeks I noticed they had a chat button on the site so I asked how long for my order. Apparently, even though I’d rung them to change my card details 3 weeks before, and rang back the next day to confirm it, they hadn’t updated my card and hadn’t told me. They told me to ring again. While I was on hold I checked the website, watches in stock, so I put the ‘phone down, cancelled my order and ordered it again with my new card. It arrived 2 days later. In with calm. Deep breaths. 4 weeks! Anyway, it’s arrived and it actually is a great watch. Brilliant tracking and great pace tracking. Which is exactly what I need. And big, clear display, visible even if I’m not wearing glasses. Fantastic. The not so good is it’s packed with other data and features, one of which is a race predictor. It said (after I’d ran in it 3 times) that it estimated my marathon time to be 3.10. That’s only a snapshot guess, and it will get more accurate the more I use it (2 more runs and it’s already revised it down to 3.08) but it was enough to make me panic a bit more. Today was a 20 mile run on my plan, so I decided to see where I am. I wanted to run the first 10 miles at 6.50 (sub 3 pace), the second at 7.10. I failed, but not by much. I was only 2 seconds too slow in total over […]

It’s now 8 weeks until my target marathon. I really don’t think I’m going to do it. That Garmin blip that put me at 1.26 for the half marathon has really screwed me over. I was kind of relaxing and going with Camille’s plan, confident it was all working. Now I’m back on Advanced Marathoning, on the 70 mile a week plan, desperately trying to make up lost ground. I had another shop and bought some of the brand new Saucony Endorphin Pro 3s. The YouTube review if them said they were marginally better than the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2, that I currently have. I was cautious about the Saucony because although I love the “speedroll” tech (a rocker shape in the sole to fling you forward, so make your foot turnover really quick) it was battering my knees in my old Speed 2s. Also they are quite narrow and squashy. Since I’ve got plantar I’ve been running in the 2s quite a bit and I seem to have got used to them, so I took the plunge. I took them for a test ride today. The plan said 17 miles (at mara pace +10- 20%) I decided to do two miles warm up (+10%) then go for it for a half marathon. I tried to be fancy with my the settings on my watch to record the warm up, the half separately, and the warm down. It failed completely. So I had no idea how I was doing overall on the half attempt because it was including the average of the first two miles. Meh. I just had to go for it. The good news is the shoes are way wider than the Speeds, really soft, and fast. The bad news is I took a gamble on half a size up, to give me a bit of extra toe room, and my right foot got the numb/pain I get when cycling in cleats, from pressure under the pads of my foot. I’m hoping that the padding will give a bit. Anyway, I struggled around 5 laps of my new course. A mile or so of each lap was into the wind, which, although it wasn’t a stiff wind, when you are already at your limit, doesn’t help. Anyway, I had no idea how I’d done until I got home, uploaded the data and worked it out. 1.29:06 for a half. That’s good, (that’s great for a half, for me) but I need to be 1.25 they say, to be in sub 3 contention. And it was about all I had to do the 13.1 miles, I couldn’t have held that pace for another 13.1. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it. I’ve got a 20 mile long run next week, 16 miles with 12 at mara pace the week after and 21 miles the week after that. Then Warrington Half, Chester marathon, and 3 weeks later my target marathon. I think I’ll up the pace of […]