A tear?

After 87 minutes a sudden sharp pain in my left calf forced me to stop running. Hopefully, it's a strain and not a tear. If it's the latter, Paris will be off.

Let's see over the coming two days.

Last week

The football game on Sunday left my body exhausted for the following days. No running till Wednesday night when I struggled through a one-hour jog (it did not help that I took a turn I'd never taken before and ended up on a seemingly endless mud track along the highway, with a variety of trees and branches fallen over the path I was sliding on).

So, tomorrow morning early is for the final training. Again I will set out on my 20k route, with iPod and little flasks of water (or coke, as a friend suggested?). Whatever comes of it tomorrow, I have no excuse for not going to Paris. I've trained through winter to get back where I am now. I've paid for my train, hotel and registration. I've told people I'm doing this.

And strangely, I know it will be good. I'll get a burst of energy and then, if I can pace myself at 5:40 to 5:50 minutes per kilometer (not faster!) I will keep going for a very long time. And finish in a time not too far over two hours.

It's the first of the season. If I do one half marathon per month, I will be very ready for the Brussels 20k at the end of May. And in the course of the summer I should be able to bring my half marathon time down to under two hours.

That's the plan.

Stuck at 100

With two weeks to go till Paris, effectively only one week of training and one of rest, I remain stuck at running 100 minutes max. That will not be enough for the half marathon, so I'll give it two more tries this week (Monday and Saturday, I guess), and then just hope that the last 20 minutes will be inspired by the no doubt great atmosphere between Bastille and the finish in the Bois de Vincennes.

I had been hoping for some serious altitude training over the past week in Kenya. But the roads and paths were steep, full of boulders and slippery from the nightly rains. And our mountain overlooking the Rift Valley was so high that I ran already out of breath just climbing the twenty steps to the road. I managed to squeeze in three times 35 minutes of fartlek, but nothing more demanding than that. Still, maybe that bit of oxygen-poor training will have a positive effect.

I'll see tomorrow. First, this afternoon, I have a football match in nearby Leefdaal.

Good one

Last night I had an excellent training run. My legs just wanted to go faster all the time, my breathing was easy and I never really tired. Did my hilly 11k tour in 62 minutes - 8 minutes faster than last time I ran this route - at the speed I would need for finishing the half marathon in under two hours. That is promising. I now need to focus on endurance and put in a first attempt at running for the full 120 minutes (at a lower pace) on Saturday.

After that, there will be a week of altitude training in rural Kenya.

Several factors may help explain the ease of running yesterday:
1. I did not run for two weeks, so my body was eager
2. I played a fair bit of football recently, so my body is fitter
3. The weather was gorgeous, almost early Spring like, and I did not need to wear a jacket and long pants
4. My iPod shuffled good songs
5. I had pasta for lunch

Which was the most beneficial factor? Instinctively, I rank them like this in descending order: 3 - 2 - 4 - 1 - 5.

Paris is coming close.