The Personal Best Protocol & What's a marathon?

It's been a good weeks running...

The Mad Dog - 9th Fastest 10k I've run... The 5k training run - 9th Fastest 5k I've run... The 5 miles - 4th fastest 5miles I've run... And today, the 8 miles, 13km, the first long run of the training... and on an awful course, one of the Strava segments is called "Relentless Domingo Rise" and it is... There's also a glorious down hill section - but both of those will be on the marathon course. Anyway on this pig of a course, I run a PB... a good PB by 6min and 49s...

Where has this come from?  I have no idea - but long may it continue... Next weekend is a stress test - instead of running on the mean streets of Liverpool I'll be in the hills of North Wales - time doesn't matter, it's all about strength for that run.

But it does mean that the Personal Best Protocol has been activated - my old tradition was PB, slap up lunch... That doesn't really help the PBs keep coming... So it developed, PBs of under a minute I treat myself to the shitest movie I've not watched yet... Spaceships, ray guns, bad Bond rip offs so on and so forth...

Over that and it's gear or a treat... at £5 a minute... so today is a £35 treat... Yes, it's stupid, but it works for me... And for me, a treat... which will be this, and a frame... That'll

http://www.likethewindmagazine.com/shop/runner-drawing-julie-hyld/

Sums up a lot of why I run...

The other part of the blog is someone in the last couple of days asked what a marathon is... And sometimes I forget that I live in a world of people who either know exactly was a marathon is, or know it through the efforts of us fools who've done the miles.

So what is a marathon - 26.2 miles. Start to Finish. In one go.  Sounds simple when you type it quickly...

What people seem surprised about is the 16 weeks, 3 runs a week... Progressively pushing the muscles, building them sequentially, and letting them rest in between.  26.2 isn't something most people can jump out of bed and run in the morning, for me its the end point of a very long journey... 350 miles of running... Inc the last 26.2.  That's my marathon... It's not 26.2 it's 350 miles... Every one of them ones that I'm planning to enjoy - so next weekend is important, 9 miles in the hills is fun... Hard work, but fun - and will be at the end of two days walking:-)

It won't be a PB, there won't be any medals at the end of it, I will be muddy and tired... And more importantly I'll be having fun...

TTFN

Paul

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