Running is SO 2012

17 weeks to go (30 December)

This is something of a week off in my mind as proper marathon training starts next week: 16 weeks, according to most plans.  It’s just as well really, I still feel dreadful and the abundance of sweets and chocolates lying around means that I won’t even consider fruit or vegetables unless they’re studded with Skittles and layered with Chantilly cream.

I replace getting into shape with a much more enjoyable pastime: Moaning.  I moan about the weather, being ill, my knee hurting, perpetual darkness, TV, popular culture in general, the youth of today, the demise of the fashion for wearing skirts and trousers simultaneously... It’s a glimpse into my elderly years as everything on earth makes me ripple with irritation. 

The future inlaws must be delighted I came.

I fit in two minuscule jogs in the entire week, both breasting the tape at a wholly unsatisfactory 5km.  Switching the Lucozade for Lemsip hasn’t really helped with my training regime, nor has the near constant rain, and so I don’t give myself that hard a time about not doing much.  This is going to be a problem over the next few months, I can tell: I’m not at all competitive and so never really put myself under pressure to drive onwards and upwards. 

Warm up 3 miles then 1 mile sprinting 1 mile hill climb 100-metre bursts interval training then 3 more miles before sprint finish? 

Shan’t.

***

That’s it for 2012 then.  Bit of an inauspicious ending, sorry. 

From nought to 450km in a little over two months though – from Heathrow to Liverpool, or the length of the A5.  I’ll take that. 

Or, as Rafa Nadal says in heavily accented English on my Nike+ after a particularly long run: “[inaudible]”.