The Saturday morning ritual
Hill session – 1 hour
Primrose Hill
It was Ben Hackett’s PO leaving drinks last night. I went along and had a few cheeky beers (five bottles of Budvar to be exact) and I have to admit I felt a little tipsy. I didn’t think it was possible to get drunk on bottled beer – let alone on only five!
I am taking this as a sign that my training is going well. I haven’t really drunk a lot since Christmas so my alcohol tolerance is probably at a Saunders-like level (i.e. that of a small child). It’s my birthday coming up and that marks the end of booze until the marathon. I’m not sure which will be more of a challenge, getting around the 26.2 or surviving a beer-fuelled-rampage around Soho.
One thing’s for sure, I won’t be getting up the following day to go hill training! In a strange kind of way, I think I might miss it. Saturday mornings around Primrose Hill is becoming something of a ritual. I’d even like to keep it going after the marathon, but I know that I won’t. It’s inevitable, especially when I start to go out on Friday nights again. Perhaps I’ll start again when I get into training for Windsor.
This morning was ok – knee is still a problem, but I got around a fairly tough session without total disaster. We were focusing on endurance training this week. Our handout-happy coach distributed maps of the hill with a route marked out that weaved backwards and forwards around the network of paths, with colour-coded sections where you had to sprint, jog, surge uphill and practice downhill technique. We did two sets, one of 20 minutes around the course (my partner and I managed about two and a half laps) and one of 15 minutes (we managed one and a half lap).
The same old faces were there – the mysterious Nicoli, the skinny Asian guy, the show off who flies ahead of everyone else – no sign of the big man though. Perhaps he is having a full english somewhere?
Am slightly nervous about tomorrow’s half marathon. It seems pretty sure that we are in for a sound soaking (which I’ve never experienced before over such a long distance) and my knee is pretty bad still. Ironically, the left knee – which has given me so many problems over the past few months – seems fine!
I’m hoping to beat my previous PB 2:04:45. I think I should do it, even with the injury and the conditions, but I’m not expecting anything spectacular.
Primrose Hill
It was Ben Hackett’s PO leaving drinks last night. I went along and had a few cheeky beers (five bottles of Budvar to be exact) and I have to admit I felt a little tipsy. I didn’t think it was possible to get drunk on bottled beer – let alone on only five!
I am taking this as a sign that my training is going well. I haven’t really drunk a lot since Christmas so my alcohol tolerance is probably at a Saunders-like level (i.e. that of a small child). It’s my birthday coming up and that marks the end of booze until the marathon. I’m not sure which will be more of a challenge, getting around the 26.2 or surviving a beer-fuelled-rampage around Soho.
One thing’s for sure, I won’t be getting up the following day to go hill training! In a strange kind of way, I think I might miss it. Saturday mornings around Primrose Hill is becoming something of a ritual. I’d even like to keep it going after the marathon, but I know that I won’t. It’s inevitable, especially when I start to go out on Friday nights again. Perhaps I’ll start again when I get into training for Windsor.
This morning was ok – knee is still a problem, but I got around a fairly tough session without total disaster. We were focusing on endurance training this week. Our handout-happy coach distributed maps of the hill with a route marked out that weaved backwards and forwards around the network of paths, with colour-coded sections where you had to sprint, jog, surge uphill and practice downhill technique. We did two sets, one of 20 minutes around the course (my partner and I managed about two and a half laps) and one of 15 minutes (we managed one and a half lap).
The same old faces were there – the mysterious Nicoli, the skinny Asian guy, the show off who flies ahead of everyone else – no sign of the big man though. Perhaps he is having a full english somewhere?
Am slightly nervous about tomorrow’s half marathon. It seems pretty sure that we are in for a sound soaking (which I’ve never experienced before over such a long distance) and my knee is pretty bad still. Ironically, the left knee – which has given me so many problems over the past few months – seems fine!
I’m hoping to beat my previous PB 2:04:45. I think I should do it, even with the injury and the conditions, but I’m not expecting anything spectacular.
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Part of the ritual: Primrose Hill on a Saturday morning
posted by Jonathan @ 1:42 PM
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