THE GOOD BUCK

After a surprisingly long period with my new bike I had a blip.

On a whim I started looking for an engine to strip down to practice a bit of mechanic-ing. But then I realised I wouldn’t know if I’d been successful if it was just an engine. So I started looking for a cheap, project motorbike. That way I could play on it, there would be visible results (assuming I got it running again) and it would have some resale value afterwards, so I wouldn’t be pointlessly throwing away the price of an engine, oil, gaskets, etc.

Unfortunately on some of the sites that gives you very limited hits. To see all the available bikes I had to put in ‘motorbikes, private seller, under £1000’. That returned all the spares/repairs, project type bikes that I’d be interested in, but unfortunately it brought up lots and lots of really tempting bikes that had nothing wrong with them.

That was a test. Only 2 days ago I was taking a covid test because I felt so lousy. The next day I was fine again, so I don’t know what that was about. Last night I finished work at 22.30, by the time I’d had my tea, a shower and a a brew it was 00.30 getting to bed. Then I woke up at 05.30 with a blocked nose and was thinking I had to get up in an hour, so I couldn’t get back to sleep. Not ideal.

On the plus side the weather was amazing. The first lap there was no wind at all to speak of. The sea breeze had picked up for the second lap, but it was still light.

We set off pretty slow as the pack thinned out. I found a guy to use as a pacer. He was a little bit too fast for the pace I was trying to set but he was metronomic. I knew if I could stay with him I was going to be on target.

I had another bad blip with my training last week, missed 2 days. Then I was back at it with a vengeance. One of the days wanted an 8 -15K race. It was blowing a gale (30+ mph winds) so I did a 10K run with a flat out 5K. Even with the killer wind I was only 2 seconds shy of a sub 20. (20.01), the next day was 18 miles at 7.30- 8.10.

I’ve only got two shifts this week so I am on top of my training. Good job, it’s 3 weeks on Sunday until my marathon. You’d think that means my plan is ramping down, but it’s 11 mile with 6x .6 of a mile sprints tomorrow, 15 mile the day after, 8, 6, 20. The good news is my watch has started revising my predicted marathon time downwards again. It’s been creeping up for weeks. Currently saying 3.07:12, which is 7.10 m/m pace for 26 miles. It all depends on my endurance. And the wind. Blackpool is on the seafront so it’s always windy. My PB is 3.15, so 3.07 would be halfway there.

Another good thing this week. I’ve got 2 pairs of racing shoes. I’ve got 2 pairs of shoes that are supposed to be racing shoes (one is wearing out the other is not so good for racing) and I’ve got 2 pairs of everyday trainers. The trouble is the everyday trainers, the one’s I should be using on all but sprints sessions and actual races, are not that clever. I had Saucony Speed 2 and they were great. Do everything. Fast runs, everyday runs, they were a bit uncomfortable after half marathon distance, but apart from that they were ideal. And they were hard wearing. I got 700 miles out of them. But when I got the Speed 3 they’ve lost their way. They don’t feel fast, they don’t throw you forward into a run like the Speed 2, they just feel ploddy. I got the the Asics Novablast, as they were supposed to be a good everyday trainer, and they are comfortable and durable, but again they are ploddy. They lack the Saucony ‘speedroll’ tech.

I missed one day’s training this week, it was just a recovery 6 mile run and I was busy renting a van and collecting a sofa for Lisa so I let it slide. But it was a tough week. Up at 06.20 to run 14 miles before work on one day, 21 miles long run (in the 7.30 -8.10 range, did it at 7.58). Hard. That’s the longest run of the plan and there are no more long runs with X miles at race pace, so it’s downhill to the marathon from here.

The positives are;

I’ve not really been bothered with the groin strain since seeing the doctor. Hopefully when I get my scan they’ll say I just pulled something and I’m fine. It wasn’t cancer and running isn’t triggering it, so that’s great. If I get the all clear I’ll slowly and gently incorporate rowing back into my training.

I’ve stuck to my training this week. Last week I only did 18 miles the whole week, this week I’ve done 52. I missed one day, but that was before I refocused my mojo. Since then I’ve done 5 days straight. Including the run after work. When I did that one I knew I was back on track. Today I had the Advanced Marathoning plan long run. This week it was 16 miles, 12 of them at race pace. I thought I might as well see where I stood so I did it as 1.5 mile warm up, 13.1 (half marathon) flat out, then just over a mile home. I started off with a 6.42, 6.49, 6.52, 6.57, 6.47, 6.57 but then I lost it. 7.00, 7.02, 7.00, 7.03, 7.03, 7.08, 7.02. It was astoundingly hard. I was desperate to quit for virtually all of it, so I’m really pleased I kept going. I was so close to quitting loads of times. I finished with a 1.31:08, which is nearly 2 minutes slower than my PB. Overall it’s still my 4th fastest ever Half, and I didn’t leave a single second in reserve, so I am satisfied with it. If you start half-arseing your training, as I have been over the last few weeks, it’s inevitable you are going to lose speed and endurance.

In other good news, my appointment to see a “clinician” on Sunday was with a real doctor. So they’ve not completely destroyed the GP service yet. The doctor examined me and gave me lots of prods. He said it was most likely either a muscle strain or a sports hernia. He said I should stop exercising. It’s 6 weeks until Blackpool marathon, he clearly meant after that. He’s referred me to the hospital for an ultrasound. That will be in a few weeks. Excellent. No prostate cancer, and it’s not testicular cancer. A good week.

The only other thing is I keep going back and forth on whether to get the Sainsbury’s job. Tons of money, but no life and no time to train. And always exhausted. I did apply for it, but it was with the agency I’m working for at the Royal Mail. They just ignored my application. I could apply with a different agency. We have enough money at the moment, I have good start times, and plenty of time to train. It’s mainly fear that’s making me think about changing to worst possible start time nights. We are fine now, but what about the future?