Friday, March 16, 2007

Take a deep breath...

...because here we go again!

It doesn't feel like I will be running a marathon in two days time. Where is that "can't get this song out of my head" feeling? I forgot to eat between breakfast and lunch today and was hungry by lunch time. Hardly a very diligent approach to carbo loading.

On Wednesday night I did a few bits and pieces of warming up and joined the Namban track workout. A mile time trial followed by five 800-m intervals. But all at well below maximal effort and I finished feeling quite energized. Rested yesterday. Got up for three laps of my 3.3-km loop from home this morning. I felt a bit slow and stodgy, but by the second lap had the pace up around 4:20/km and did the third lap a little faster again, feeling like I was finally getting into the run just as it was time to finish. But I definitely don't have that feeling of hubristic confidence I had going into Tokyo. Nope. I am determined to run this one at a modest pace of 4:20 to 4:30 for the first 30 km and then hope like buggery I can hold onto it. I am not at all confident that I can. In fact, if Satohi were to ask me to pace her rather than run my own race, I probably would. But for the time being, I will approach it with a view to chalking up a solid if unspectacular time in as even splits as possible. I am actually very curious to know if I can preserve myself enough to have a strong rather than "hanging on for grim death" final 12 km.

See you on the other side folks.

Oh...in case anybody might be interested, I started a new blog to balance this one.


5 comments:

Ewen said...

I think I'll delete this blog and subscribe to the new one ;) I'm enjoying a saaz hops beer now. By the way, what's "hops neglected on the bine"?

Hope your plan is successful Steve. A faster paced final 12k would be worth writing about. Good luck.

2P said...

All the best mate - I'm sure all that combined wisdom and kms in your legs from your years of training and racing will stand you in good stead.

FWIW given the timing of this - "start slow and build" would be a good mantra.

Cheers, 2P

Ingo said...

Good luck tomorrow! Make sure you come to the track on Wednesday to share your story!

plu said...

I cannot keep track of what you are doing. Have a good run.

Plu

Tesso said...

Good luck tomorrow Steve!!!!

Carol and I are running a half marathon and you will be taking off within an hour of us finishing. We'll send good vibes from Expressohead as we are enjoying our post run brekky :)

Not matter what, just have fun out there!