13 October: What's missing?

If you've been reading carefully, you'll have noticed that I don't bother writing about short easy-paced runs. That's because I don't do them. A lot of marathon plans are based on xx mileage per week. The total miles go up nice and steadily until three weeks to go, and then come down nice and steadily. The detail is often something like "Sun: 18 miles steady; Mon: off: Tues: 7 miles easy: Weds: 5 miles tempo...."

Clearly this is rubbish and designed to suit obsessives and accountants. My life isn't like that and I'm sure most peoples' aren't. Even so, I have coveted the Perfecto Training Plan MKIII and in the past I've spent time stressing about not doing one.

My plan has always been to do the important sessions and runs well, and forget about everything else. Any spare time is far better spent resting, drinking beer, catching up with the 1001 other things in my life that don't involve running - so four easy miles isn't on the agenda. The last three months have consisted almost entirely of long runs, hill and interval sessions, and races, and lots of days not running. I'm not completely idle on a "day off", I have to get to work and back somehow and the bike is a great way of doing that - 20 minutes each way. The dogs always appreciate an outing, and of course I've still got hillwalking to fit in.

Now though, in the far-away Land of Taper, I am going to do some short runs and today is one of them. I think it's reasonable to do them at the equivalent of marathon pace (about 7min/mile on the flat) so that's what I did today - four miles in 28 minutes. I'm glad I did because I've been feeling sluggish and tired all day and I couldn't work out whether it was impending illness or just the Marston's and Bowmore I drank last night. As it turns out, it was just the drink!

It's still warm, still humid, still windless. One strange thing happens- as I'm runing across the COmmon on the way out, three teenage girls are sitting on a bench, looking at me coming towards them. I prepare for the usual hoots and Forrest Gump references, but instead one of them looks me in the eye and says "Aren't you tired?". I tell her that I'm not and go on. Twenty minutes later, I pass the same girls again. Just as I go past, one of them says "well done". It's a strange place, the Land of Taper!