14 Days To Go - Come On You Yellows

Date & Time : 11/04/10 10:15
Distance : 12.5 miles
Total Training Distance (since beginning Sept 09) : 546 miles
Route & Stats : Colney and Back

I didn't run during the week to give me knees a chance to recover a bit. So I was bursting to get out at the weekend for a decent training run.   I decided to run out to Norwich City's training facility at Colney Lane to watch my nephew Tom play for Norwich under 12's against Arsenal.  It also gave me a chance to catch up with my brother Harvey, who I haven't seen for ages.  It gave me the opportunity to remind him that he hadn't sponsored me yet - it worked!  Thanks for the £50 bruv.

It was a good game.  Norwich played well and initially took the lead, but to be fair the Arsenal lads were a class above.  Their passing and moving one and two touch play was a delight to watch and some of individual skills on display were excellent.  Final score was 3-1 to Arsenal.  Tom has been a regular in the the U12s this year and as far as I can gather, he's been one of the best players in the squad.  He finds out on Wednesday this week if he is going to remain in the academy for another season, so fingers crossed.

The run itself was great.  Weather was perfect, bright blue sky, not too hot and a nice cooling breeze - give me this for the marathon any day.  I looked a bit of a state with both knees strapped and an ankle support, but the extra support around the knees worked really well and I didn't feel any pain or discomfort at all.  My average pace for the 6 miles out was 8:42 min miles which is pretty good for me and it felt great.   I took it a bit slower on the way back but again it was a reasonably good pace averaging 9:02 for the full 12.5 miles.

This was just what I needed, a really good solid run.  No injuries or niggles (well nothing a quick ice pack on my right ankle couldn't sort out).   Not sure if I'll run during the week again or just stick to a couple of cross training sessions.  I'll definitely be out at the weekend though for my last, yes last, training run before the big day.

I also managed to complete another major task this week - I ironed my name onto the front of my running vest without screwing it up - result.  I fully expected to lash it up and/or melt the vest, but it actually worked out really well - maybe, just maybe, running this marathon is going to be OK!