Another belated update

I really have to stop putting off posting in this blog. I had a perfect entry all mapped out in my head as soon as I came back from my run yesterday, but I just didn’t do it. I’ve found that my brain short circuits after a long run, and I can’t think, construct a sentence or do anything mentally challenging for the rest of the day. That might be an excuse. I’m not sure.

I was hoping to get to 30km yesterday. I don’t know why I thought I’d be able to do it. Five extra kilometres is a lot, when I couldn’t even summon the energy to walk after 25km just a few weeks ago. I was even more temporally aware than usual. Three hours is a long time, and boredom started to pop up underneath my discomfort as soon as I got into my third lap around the lake. I was hoping to complete a fourth lap, but I hadn’t gotten far past my first water stop (which is only three hundred metres or so into the circuit) before my body decided it had enough, and I was forced to sit down for a minute or two.

Overall, I managed 27 kilometres. Very slow kilometres. When I got home I may have been a little emotional. I was upset that I couldn’t make it to 30km, and all the worrying I’d been doing the night before came back and jumped up and down in front of my face.

I only have seven more long runs before the marathon. I might have time, but I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to plan, and this is the best I managed to come up with:

12/02 - 29km
19/02 - 31km
26/02 - 33km
05/03 - 25km
12/03 - 35km
20/03 - 37km
26/03 - 39km
02/04 - Taper

I might not need to do the 39km run, but I would like to get as close as possible to the 42 before race day. I had to have a smaller week in there, because the constant increases are probably going to be hell.

I’m having two running-related problems at the moment. The first is that I’m running quite slowly at the moment. Incredibly slowly, compared to the past. Some of my kilometres are at an 8:00 minute/km pace, and that’s a bit of a worry. I don’t know if the hot weather is causing my decrease in speed, or just the increase in distance.

The second problem I’m having is nutritional. Yesterday’s run burned about 11,000 kilojoules, and after I add my basal metabolic rate, I would have needed to consume at least 16,000 kilojoules yesterday to keep up with my diet (which expects me to lose half a kilo a week, to make up for the excesses of my holidays). I doubt I ate more than 8000 or 9000 kilojoules yesterday, and I was really trying. I don’t know if this will affect my training in the coming week. I’m hoping it won’t. I weighed myself this morning and I seem to have dropped three kilos this week, which is a bit more than I expected.

Okay. I’m going to stop rambling now.