A lean and hungry look

My marathon training programme starts on Sunday with the Chevin Chase and I have acted on my intention of not racing since the Abbey Dash. I put the effort in at the second PECO cross country race last week. I latched onto Mick Hogan again and he dragged me round the course. I felt ok and I’m sure that a few weeks rest has done me good.

I’m carrying some timber though - I’m just over 5kg heavier than I was when I ran the London marathon last year and that’s before the Christmas excess. I got a 5kg bag of spuds out earlier this evening and gave it a hard stare. I ought to move a bit quicker if I can shift that lot.

I’m beginning to feel that I’m from a lost generation. I read an article in g2 earlier this week that purported to state what threads the middle aged man should be seen in. According to this article, the paragons of middle aged chic were none other than Take That. Their ages range from 36 to 42. Where does that leave us fifty somethings? In Greenwoods I suppose.

I ran Chevin Chase last year and although I enjoyed the race, the performance wasn’t memorable. I was just coming back from injury so knew I wasn’t in good form so wasn’t going for a time. It was on a Saturday and I ran a fairly quick parkrun before the race (given the icy conditions of the path) and got my top finish of the year – 6th. I told myself that the parkrun 5k was a good warm up and set off as quick as I was able and hoped I could hang on – I couldn’t. My legs went at four miles and I dropped over 100 places as a whole stream of sensible runners went past.

I’ve had a couple of reasonably long walks and a slow club training session this week. Haven’t recorded times or mileage as I was just ticking over really. I’m about to jog over to the Chevin and run round the middle bit of the course (the beastly hill in two sections; if the first bit doesn’t kill you the second one will).

I may not be able to achieve the sartorial look, but the next step on the way to a lean and hungry look starts here.

http://www.justgiving.com/LizJones1