PROGRESS, PROGRESS...

In spite of what I wrote in my previous post, I ran well over three hours on Sunday. I woke up pain-free, and feeling all fueled up thanks to Chui Hsia's magic pasta. Fell just short of the planned 33k (three times my regular 11k loop), but at 32k in 192 minutes there was little to complain about bar maybe the feeling of total and utter death towards the end.

Then on Tuesday, I followed colleague Fabienne (who does triathlons) over the office running circuit. Much to my surprise I completed the 6.5k in 29 minutes only, with an average speed of about 14k per hour. It's the pace one needs for finishing a marathon in three hours.

The rest of the working week was not very good for running. But I picked it up again on Friday (6.5) and Saturday (11, with Chui Hsia cycling along). And then, this morning I completed the 33k in 195 minutes, still feeling like I had something left. I guess I'm getting close to where I should be in three weeks from now.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

Four weeks of training left before I start my marathon in Amsterdam, and the news is mixed. I am not confident at all that I will be ready in time, but I know I have made great progress.

Running three hours non-stop meant a major milestone, two weeks ago. It coincided with a family outing festival called De Gordel, for which occasion many streets had been shut for motorised traffic, and a 25 kilometers cycling route, set up for the day, passed right in front of our house. I ran that route and then some, adding up to around 30 kilometers. It was terribly long, boring at times, and hell for the last twenty minutes, but I did not stop. I guess that's the essential preparation for a marathon.

Last week I joined an 8 kilometers race in Molenbeek, close to our old house, where a djembe band cheered up the participants and spectators at the finish line in spite of the rain. The race consisted of three loops, meaning I passed the band four times. I finished with an average speed of 4:55 per kilometer, faster than any race I had done before. Another milestone.

But it's not all good news. Today was supposed to bring the longest session of my training, a 200 minutes run. But a fierce pain in my left lower back keeps me grounded. I rubbed it with tiger balm last night and it feels slightly better but still is incapacitating. With more long runs scheduled for the coming weekends, I have now decided to skip this one. Instead, next week's 180 minutes will be turned into the 200 of today. Hopefully this decision will help ease the pressure on  my body enough to keep going again.

It is a serious setback though. The coming two weeks should be the most intense in my carefully constructed training regime, and starting them with a back pain and cancelation of a key effort is not encouraging.

We shall see. I will try a short run again tomorrow (35 minutes, or 6 kilometers) and then take it from there.