The (not very) Christmas Special...

The imminent arrival of Christmas is giving me a headache. Not metaphorically, but a proper full-on headache that feels like it's a proper banging hangover; only I haven't been drinking... Even though we're "not doing Christmas" this year; we are still doing it. It's the same as every other year, just with no decorations. All the associated food, drink, peace, goodwill, and over-commercialised crap that walks hand in hand with the 'festive season' is still here. And it's this that is giving me a headache. I really would like to pull the duvet over my head, curl up into a ball, and like a hibernating bear in need of a good dump, only surface when nature necessitates. Only I'm not allowed... So the only way I can 'de-stress' is to put my running shoes on & head out of the door. Lucky for me then that training started again this week...

So, here we go then. A stone over raceweight (I'm not going to tell you what my ideal raceweight is, just that it's a stone less than I currently am and with the festive season almost upon us there's little chance of shifting much of it any time soon...) and, by my standards, I feel pretty unfit. That being said though, the first week of my eighteen week training schedule for the 2013 Virgin London Marathon is complete! Hurrah! The thing is, with the sole exception of 'Triple Tuesday' - run before work/swim at lunchtime/run after work - I haven't really felt as if I'm in training again, although I have seemed to be a bit more lethargic than usual. Even though during my 'downtime' period I reduced my weekly mileage to a 'ticking-over' level and only raced short distances, preferably off-road, it does feel as if I didn't actually slow down, which I most definitely did. I know I did because I can already feel myself inwardly groaning at the prospect of double figure mileage runs. In the rain. That and the fact that I ate too much cake.

So what did my 'Advanced Marathoning Training Schedule' tell me to do this week? It told me that on the very first day of my schedule I should - rest. Rest? What the hell have I been doing for the past six weeks? Pushing a bed from Lands End to John O'Groats? Rest...? Sod that... Oh, hang on. No; it says 'rest or cross-training'. Now that's more like it... Cross-training; non-impact, non running, and not pushing yourself too much. I can do that... Swimming it is then. Just a few lengths of the pool during the lunchtime. Simple... How many lengths? Sixteen... No, thirty two... Okay, I actually did fifty. I'd never swum that many lengths in one session before. So, on Day One of my marathon schedule, on what was officially a 'rest day', I swam a distance PB. Oops...
But what of 'Triple Tuesday' I hear the voices whisper in my ear..? Well, like the terrain of many a training run, it consisted of a down, an up, and another up... The 'down' wasn't dragging myself out of bed at 5:30am and going through my usual press-ups/foam roller/sit-up/plank/press-ups routine; I do it every other weekday so why should this day be any different? No, the 'down' came after that routine. It was donning the head torch & reflective clothing dragging myself out of the door to run a very cold and damp 5.5 mile loop at an average of 7:30/mi... The first 'up' of the day came as I swam my 52nd length of the pool. Yes, the very next day after setting a distance PB in the pool, I set a new one during a coaching session. Nice one you plonker... And the second 'up'? Well, it wasn't much but it really shouldn't have happened. A busy afternoon at work meant that I had no time to eat then get to the Whitehall Track, so I opted to run a reverse of the mornings 5.5 mile loop instead. Somehow, I don't know how, I managed to run it 82 seconds faster than I had twelve hours earlier, at an average pace of 7:16/mi..!!! So, my first 'Triple Tuesday' resulted in 11 miles run in roughly 80 minutes and a new distance PB in the pool. If I'll still be that pleased with 'Triple Tuesdays' in 18 weeks times, however, remains to be seen...
I managed to fit a 10.5 mile run in on Wednesday whilst, on Thursday, I put in yet another lunchtime swim & then, after donning the reindeer costume once more, I split my evening run into two parts - the first half at pace & the second part at a pedestrian pace during the Running Clubs annual Xmas Lights run. It's amazing just how tacky some people can make their house look when they buy every decoration from Poundland... It's also amazing how many people stop and stare when somebody dressed as a reindeer goes charging past them...
Friday saw a good hard 8 mile lunchtime run, taking in the hills around Compton Dando and going up Peppershells Lane (affectionately known as 'that f**king steep hill') followed by a post work swim of 50 lengths.
Sunday saw the longest run of the week with an easy 15.35 mile loop out to Keynsham & back whilst taking in a fair chunk of the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. The strange thing about this run was that, even though I knew that I could do the distance, mentally I struggled to get out of the door to do it. I think that once you've finished work in the build-up to Christmas the body would much rather stay in bed or sit in front of the telly eating cake rather than getting out in the cold wind & rain... But complete the run I did. At an average of 7:31/mi It wasn't the best run I've ever had but there's plenty of time for improvement & stamina to build. An evening out with She-who-must-be-obeyed (consisting of an easy 22 length swim and 4 games of badminton, of which she won precisely none of them) brought the weekend to a nice relaxing end. Well, for me it was relaxing. I can't vouch for the Wife. Living with me must be like having to live with somebody stuck in fast-forward mode...

At the risk of sounding like some anorak wearing nerd, I log details of every run/swim/cycle that I do, such as how I felt during the run, distance, time, average speed per mile, & calories burnt, in a training diary. I was encouraged to do this by my last running Coach, Oirish Ron, when he coached me to run sub-3:30 in the inaugural Brighton Marathon in 2010, and it's something I've done ever since. The diary is nothing special, just a bog-standard black WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary. Until this year that is... My better half was doing a spot of Christmas shopping this week and asked me if there was anything I needed. Yes, says I, can you get me a bog-standard black WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary please? What did I receive? Exactly what I asked for - a bog-standard WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary. However, the word 'black' must have gotten lost in the ether of cyber-space... I am now the bemused owner of a a bog-standard purple & pink WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary. I despair. The only thing missing is the glitter and pressed flowers..... Larry Grayson would love it.

Oh yeah; you can now follow me on Twitter @baldypetesblog

For those of you that don't do Twitter, it just means that I can now 'tweet' banal crap to the world at large in 140 characters or less. FYI the statement 'I effing hate Christmas, wake me up when it's all over' is only 54 characters long. Which means that there's plenty of scope for me to say where I'd like Santa to shove a mince pie or two...

Weekly totals:

Run miles: 60.6

Swim lengths/metres: 206/5150m

Sit-ups: 672

Press-ups: 384

Cycle miles: 0

And don't forget - the best thing about Christmas Day is on BBC1 at 5:15pm...