Training Update
Last night I had a session with a new personal trainer, Andy. He’d been recommended to me by a friend at the gym as somebody who specialized in running. I have to say, he was a bit of a spunk. (For the Yanks, that means he was a hottie.) Thick as two planks, though. (He was dumb.) He asked how long I had til the race, to which I answered 48 days. He was like, “So that’s, what, four weeks?” Me: “Try closer to seven.” But he was pretty.

So anyway, Andy thinks that I should aim to be running 12K two weeks before the race. (This is slightly counter to other things I’ve read. Hmmm.) Then I just rest and do light training until the big event. He did recognize that my biggest problem is going to be maintaining the mental concentration to run for 70+ minutes. The program he gave me is four days a week: one day of indoor cardio for the full length of time I’d be running the race (i.e. treadmill for 40 minutes, cross-trainer for 30), one day of general weight training, one day of running the whole distance outside, and one day of light weights followed by a yoga class. I think eventually I’m supposed to work in another day of running too, but I can’t even think about that at the moment.

The yoga is to strengthen my lower back, which has been giving me progressively more pain. He thinks I may have something out of alignment, which is why I’m booked in to see a physiotherapist tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear the medical equivalent of “You run funny.” I started the program last night with 40 minutes on the treadmill and 20 on the cross-trainer. My legs feel like jelly today and I somehow pulled a muscle in my shoulder. (I can only imagine how funny I must look running if I’m flopping about so badly as to constantly injure myself.) But I’m on my way!