No title this week, everything hurts too much to be witty.....

Did I not like that? For me that was without doubt the hardest run so far and for the first time I got an indication of the mental and physical challenge that awaits me on April 22nd. Physically I wasn’t feeling particularly bright all weekend but it was just one of those days when nothing felt right and I had no gas in the tank. I knew I was in trouble even before the 1st water stop but I tried to tell myself that some days you just have to grit your teeth and grind it out.

However by the time we turned for home after the Polo club I was running in what an IT geek would term “Safe Mode” with all non-essential systems shut down just so I could continue to put one foot in front of the other. By the time I made it to Strood Lane my CPU usage was running at 99% and not even the best efforts of Bon Scott and Angus Young could keep me going and I walked most of the next mile. Around this point Julia G caught me up and thankfully she gave me a little pep talk about training always being harder than the day and generally made me realise that it was ok to have a bad day sometimes. This gave me the kick up the arse I needed to run/walk the remainder. Ironically after all of this drama queen act I actually came in quicker than last week over the same distance, and if you had offered me 18 miles in under 3 hours on 1st January I would have bitten you hand off but somehow I still felt very deflated. Funny business this running lark, the grey gloop between your ears really is more important than the legs and lungs.

Last week I quoted one of my heroes, Muhammad Ali, and to paraphrase he said “…the will must be stronger than the skill.” I momentarily lost that part of my psyche in Strood Lane but I will be sure never to make that same mistake again. PMA my boy.

PS. Thank you to Paul A and his kids for servicing our needs. The training run supporters deserve our thanks for their efforts, particularly now that the distances are creeping up.

Weekly total: 22.5 miles
Long run: 17.9 miles
FGI: 4

Quotes of the week:
"Perfection is giving your all, so those who think those who try their hardest and fail aren't reaching perfection, they're wrong, because if you try your hardest, you have reached perfection.”

“I don’t train. I just run my 3-15 miles a day.”

N