It happens to the best of us. Even if your training has gone spot on and you've hit every session exactly right, when the countdown clock goes under 21 days there's always room for a bit of maranoia. The week after Kingston, the last week of full training on my plan before taper, was annoyingly … Continue reading Maranoia
It's just over three weeks til Sunday 23rd April, the date which has been looming large in my diary since new year. London Marathon Day! And my charity vest just arrived. As I've mentioned, I'm running for Coram, the UK's oldest children's charity. Originally I was attracted to Coram as a charity because of the … Continue reading 23 Days til 23rd April…
Quite a large part of marathon training can feel like a bit of a slog. There's almost an element of Stockholm Syndrome to it. You're either running, recovering from running, thinking about running, or sitting at work wishing you were running instead. However at some point, if you're really lucky, things start to feel a … Continue reading Turning Points
Take your seats for tonight’s performance An adagio, not a sprint Running a piacere, clearing the reel from the back of your eyelids A soundtrack of masterpieces, concert of youth misspent The baton raps memories to attention Shivers down your spine Not breeze over sweat, but the souring tenor of the tenor Guardi le stele … Continue reading Diminuendo
I had a very special teacher for A Level History who used to say to us 'it's amazing what you can get done in two weeks'. These are words to live by, I've found. Two weeks ago we were hot off the plane from Tokyo and I'd got a half marathon booked. I was knackered, jet … Continue reading Two Week’s Notice
A few moths ago, I got a really rather wonderful message from a really rather wonderful person. This person, an accomplished writer themself, had decided to nominate my blog for the 2017 Running Awards. I was really flattered - I've got a lot of respect for the person who nominated me and I enjoy their … Continue reading Running Awards 2017 – Final Countdown!
What do your feet feel like after a long run? I suppose it depends on how long the long run was…10 miles ok? 15? What about a 20 miler on an uneven towpath? Last year at about this time I was at the business end of training for the Rome marathon, and my feet were … Continue reading Kit Review – OOFOS Recovery Flip Flops
We’ve just got back from a trip to Japan. It’s not somewhere I would have thought to go on holiday, but when you’re a running household and there are medals at stake there is a tendency to end up going to some interesting places. In fact after last year’s trip to Rome, the jaunt to … Continue reading Tokyo Marathon Friendship Run
I ran a funny little race today. And I had a lovely time. We got back from a very successful trip to Japan on Friday, where we had been so that Mr. Duff could tick another major off the list by running the Tokyo marathon. More on that soon. In my infinite optimism I had … Continue reading Running Community Spirit
Part 2 – Taking Care of Yourself Last time we covered the basics of getting yourself a support network and finding a suitable plan. Today we're going to talk about how to make sure you look after yourself when you're training for a marathon. Time & Motion Training for a marathon takes up a massive … Continue reading The Normal’s Guide to Marathon Training – Part 2
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