The blogposts have gradually settled into some sort of recognisable shape, starting with the number of minutes I've ran, followed by the starting time, photos-en-route and some commentary on them and my running.
My goals have changed a little in the course of the year. At first I thought running a sub 4 hour marathon was a possibility but I'm not so sure any more that this is achievable or even desirable. I enjoy my slow distance runs, I'm not sure I really want to put the effort into speed-training that would be necessary for me to be able to run faster. So far I've run more or less injury free. (Few wee twinges now and then but nothing serious.) Why should I risk losing that? I'm never going to be a serious competetive runner so I think I'm better just to stick to enjoying what I can.
I'd already been keeping a record of the time I spent running every week and then at the end of January I counted up the hours I'd run that month and realised that it was almost an hour a day so decided to see if I could indeed run for an average of one hour a day for the whole year. At this (almost) half-way point in the year I'm up to schedule, with an hour or so 'in the bank'.
Highlight of my running year was probably running the Urk/Zwolle marathon 10 days after I'd heard I had to have a tumour in my breast removed. I hadn't really trained for a full marathon in November but as I had no idea at that time if I'd be healthy enough to do the planned spring marathon I decided that I wanted to complete one before the operation date at the beginning of December. Luckily I turned out to have cancer-lite and got away with only one week's break from running following the operation. The 6 weeks of daily radiotherapy sessions in the new year didn't disrupt my running routine much and I ran the Utrecht marathon shortly after they finished.
Another memorable run was the day I ran the length of the Afsluitdijk (30+k). I got the idea from Dolf Jansen (a Dutch cabaretier and seriously fast distance runner) in his book 'Altijd Verder'.
My award for the Running Book of the Year definitely goes to Chris McDougall's 'Born to Run'. Another great motivational tool has been my discovery of runners' podcasts. The Extra Mile and Run Run Live have informed, amused and entertained me on most of my runs over the last half year or so. Geek Girl Runner is a more recent discovery and I'm starting to look round for others to add to my collection now that I've gone through most of the back issues of my 2 favourites-so-far.
Most of my runs are done alone but I occasionally have enthusiastic canine companionship. Thanks to Dusty, Sproet, Sil and Rimmer. And to the host of other dogs I 'meet' whilst out and about. I'm always glad to see them.
I've also just remembered that it is of course Bloomsday on the 16th of June. 3 years ago I celebrated this with a weekend in Dublin prior to my finally reading James Joyce's Ulysses. (I'd got stranded in it 3 times before - I really needed to have the city 'in my head' to get through it.)
Next year Bloomsday falls on a Thursday, as it does in the book, so I'd really like to go back again and take more of an active part in all the dressing-up activities. So hopefully I'll celebrate my blog's 2nd birthday there too... On with Year Two of MarathonWomanReturns.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten