Wednesday, 17th February – 67 days to go

Take a proper look at Liversedge half results. Just being nosey really. Adrian came 34th! He’s just getting better and better. Sixth in M45 category, only one M50 ahead of him and no Fs. Reckon he’s about three minutes faster than me at the moment so page down the list to check where I’d have come if I’d run. Bugger, Claire’s on that bit. Don’t know her, but recognise the name and know she’s at least two minutes faster than me. Page down some more. Decide to award myself 64th place. Sorry Mr Dugdale, Chris is coming through. Look for other people I either know or whose name I recognise. Alex from parkrun did well; wonder if he pushed the pram (and baby) round like he does at parkrun? I think of myself as something of a cold fish, but even I’m cheered by a young man pushing a pram round the park at breakneck speed. Mr Elder you really are a w*!!@*. Only know or recognise four people. Maybe everyone else is suffering from race fatigue as well and they’ve taken the day off.

Check e-mails. Mick has sent his training log to the Thursday evening group and there are already four responses in. Open Mick’s log (blimey, that doesn’t sound good). Excel spreadsheet. Completely ignore content whilst checking spreadsheet for macros, what ifs, pivot tables and fancy presentation whistles and bells. Find none, just a workmanlike record where you know it’s the content that’s important to the creator. Reflect on what a saddo I am. Look through Mick’s log. Flipping heck, what a lot of training and such detail. Even records shoes! I’m both very impressed and very intimidated on both counts (training and recording). There was a time when I’d have nicked the format, adapted with macros, what ifs etc etc and started my own log. Those days are gone. I know I don’t have the will to maintain such a record. Agree in principle with logging runs, but regret that it’s not for me. Open other e-mails to find out what others make of it. Nikos, Chris and Julie all keep logs! Crikey. Hang my head in shame. Maybe need to reconsider. Check out the links they’ve sent. Some great stats on Fetcheveryone site recommended by Julie. I’m aiming for a 3:15 finish but think a 3:30 is more realistic. Last week the median “Fetchies” in these two groups ran 35-38 miles with long run of 16-16.4 miles. 3:15ers ran their long run at 7:54 pace and 3:30ers at 8:22 pace. Decide to keep similar records for my training runs rather than a log. Thanks Julie.

Plan my long run for next Sunday (2 hours 20 minutes. easy). Decide to run from home to Harewood and back at 8:30 pace. Liz does the Memory Map thing and this comes up a long way short. We decide to go on a walking reccy to check out extending the run down to the Wharfe at Harewood and then following the river to East Keswick. I’m going to have to run over 16 miles which is a bit further than I was hoping, particularly at increased pace.

Drive over to Harewood and walk down to the river. It’s turned out to be a fine afternoon. Five hares in the first field. Not exactly doing the Mad March Hare stuff, but they’re definitely thinking about it. Further on we see three roe deer. Haven’t seen any for years. Don’t know Latin name for mammals. There are only about a dozen “proper” British mammals (I’m not counting mice and shrews and things as they all look the same from a distance) so can’t explain this oversight. Walk six miles and we’re both knackered; the Tuesday session has really taken it out of us so it’s as well that Wednesday’s a rest day. Not sure if I can count the six walked miles in my weekly mileage chart. I guess it depends how well I’ve done with my runs.