Week 15 - Easy like Sunday morning.

20 miles on the marathon course was the weekend target and the build up was nice enough with a hour or so (8 miles) while the kids swam on Monday. I have become adept a squeezing in runs when it is least disruptive domestically, though my family may not agree.

There is no denying it, the training, even at my lowly level is enormously time consuming. Relentless planning and preparation, you become a slave to the programme, grumpy and irritable when behind and a crashing bore when ahead of schedule. And the washing, don't get me started...

A break on Tuesday and a quick lunchtime 5-miler on Wednesday, missed the session on Thursday (domestic commitments!) meant 5 miles was needed on Friday night, this took a bit of doing, but just about managed it (just round town and along Kersebonny) though, again, this was not popular at home.

So to Musselburgh first thing on Sunday (7:30 departure from home, running by 8:30) to try out the course itself. We did ten miles out to Longniddry and back again, completing 20 miles with a wee circuit of Queen Margaret University's new campus. It is nice and flat (the route, not the campus) with some diversions as you pass through the towns of Prestonpans, Cockenzie and Port Seton. It is still a struggle to get to the 20 mile mark, leaving that element of doubt about doing another 5 miles, but if it was easy it wouldn't be a challenge, right?

Eating and drinking en route is a problem, I can't carry water (just too annoying) so I'll be relying on water stations, but it means I have not been able to replicate this in training. I have experimented with gels such as the Honey Stinger range, but it is not clear to me when the best time to take these is, and they taste so foul that they will have to coincide with a water stop (and maybe some mouth wash). We'll see, large bowl of porridge and syrup remains the breakfast of champions.

Week 14 - Music was my first love.

In general, my weekly mileage is now upwards of 35 miles and this week topped 40. The knees are holding up and with only one more really long run to go, it looks like the whole adventure might have a successful outcome.

This week saw an easy Monday run, which has become something of a routine, despite the programme insisting on it being a rest day. I tend to use Tuesday as a rest day instead. Anyway, a wee run around Swanswater was followed by a late evening run through town (always fun to dodge the outpourings from the pubs) and Riverside to my folks place to collect the bike left there earlier. The rush to get to Forthbank for the last game for the mighty Binos caused a bit of chaos there. Skipped the session on Thursday in order to complete 8 miles and retrieve the week's running, meetings etc threatening the proceedings earlier in the week. I experimented with music on this run, just to see what the effect was. I've never run with tunes, always assumed it would mess with the rhythm of the run. And it does, your feet are compelled to keep time to the music (at least mine are - maybe I got the music in me?). It did make the run rather fun, and I did like coming through the woods to the strains of The Devil Came Down to Georgia, but I fear it may not be the way serious competitors do their thing.

The weekend run was a nice 14 miles around the town and Bridge of Allan with Lesley (for I am the running gigolo). Even though the mileage was well within what I am now capable of, it was still preety sore by the end. Look forward to the taper weeks ahead. 4 weeks to race day!

Week 13 - On and on and on.

This week was a build up to the mammoth effort required to master the 19+ mileage expected at this stage in proceedings and it was done in Aberdeen on holiday at the in-laws.

A bad start as I left the running shoes at home, turned out to be something of a result as I picked up a pair of Asics trainers for a tenner in a clearance store, should have those nicely run in by race day. Anyway, 5 miles along the beach and 7 miles around my old city haunts (interrupted by helping an old lady who'd fallen, I'm such a good citizen) and things are looking good.

The club session was shuttles, which I quite like and I ensured mileage was up to the mark by running home from the session.

So to the weekend and a bus trip to Callendar and the long run home via the back road to Deanston and Gargunnock the farm roads to the Raploch. 20 miles up! I did enjoy it overall, though the slog along the farm roads into the wind wasn't much fun. I managed to work out a way of carrying food (in the form of fruit energy bars) in a waist belt. Normally don't like anything being in the way, but this was OK and I planned to buy water en route. Garage at Doune was shut and ended up scoofing water from the tap in a nearby caravan park. It was like Ray Mears, surviving in the wilds of the Trossachs. Great to see so many cyclists out at that time too, there is a whole Sunday morning underworld of runners and cyclists.

Week 12 - Oh, what a beautiful morning.

A step-back week this week, with things a little easier. 5 quick miles round town on the Monday was followed by a storming 8 mile session at first light on Wednesday.


Around the Carse of Lecropt on farm roads in the perfect morning quiet, with a cloudless sky above and yellowhammer, pheasant, blue tit, great tit, dunnock, curlew, skylark all twittering their lungs out. Throw in rabbits and squirrels bounding away as you pass and you start to feel like Bambi gamboling through the forest. Sort of. It was truly glorious and reignited my enthusiasm for the whole affair.

This week's long run was a loop round the town followed by the North Third route. I was joined by part of it by an erstwhile running compadre who first showed me this route some years ago. She is in half-marathon training, so it was good to get a long run in. We were not attacked, as some have been on this route, by nesting buzzards. They don't put that in the running books.

Myeloma UK, (http://www.myelomaonline.org.uk/) the primary beneficiaries of all this effort, have been great throughout the training providing support, encouragement, advice and, this week, a skyrie orange running vest. You'll not miss me come race day.

Week 11 - Only women bleed?

This was a tough week, starting with a few strides in the park on the Monday to get the legs moving again after the weekend. So far so good, even Tuesday's rather pleasant jaunt from Forthbank (the theatre of dreams) up through Milhall and Shirra's Brae and back through town left me feeling fine.

Wednesday saw another early start in order to keep up the miles, 8 of them along Swanswater in very pleasant sunshine. Pleasant that is until about 6 miles, when I was overcome by violent stomach cramps of near-Paula proportions, I think you know what I mean. I was too far past the Pirnhall Inn to go back and not close enough to home. Caught between two stools, you might say, if you were speaking scatologically. Result was cries of agony ringing around the Cambusbarron quarry and carefully timed spells of walking in order to prevent a nasty accident. Much too close for comfort. Nice sunrise, though.

The club session salvaged some pride, being 8 track laps of sprinting the straights and jogging the bends, which was fine. I foolishly played football the next day and felt the presence of my hamstrings (and not in a reassuring way) so was glad of a rest before the big one on Sunday.

18 miles done on the Sunday, in snow and sleet and rain and sun ... from home along the back road to Dunblane and back again. I experimented with eating and drinking, taking an energy bar at around the half-way point and I was aware of a wee buzz for the following few miles. What I wasn't aware of at the time was the state of my nipples. Not until I stopped and the blood dried and stuck my t-shirt to my now-shredded chest did I become aware of what I had done to myself. A solution will need to be found by next week.

Week 10 - Fat Man Running.

It is an affliction. A disease. An obsession, even at my level. 6 miles on the Monday and a realisation that Wednesday was going to be problematic lead to me getting up at 6am to run 9 miles before work. Felt fantastic at around 11, but 3pm was a different story. My long suffering wife is beginning to work about all the training, not least because it wakes her up at that time too. Can she not see the joy in looking at the clock and rolling over knowing you've got another hour's kip to come.

Same again to get 5 miles in on Friday morning, to keep the mileometer ticking over. All of this was building to the longest run to date - 17 miles on the Sunday. Caught the train to Falkirk (having negotiated to purchase a ticket the night before) and ran home via Stenny, Larbert and Plean. An extra loop round town and Kersebonny made up the necessary miles, or so I thought. Alas, I forgot to do the Cambusbarron loop and what I thought was 17 was actually 15 and a half. Amateur. Am a twit, more like.

Running through town means that you inevitably catch yourself reflected in shop windows. Very depressing. Hundreds of miles on the clock, body finely tuned but catch yourself in the plate-glass window of the local New Look and you are nothing but a fat man running.

Week 9 - Allo-ha.

Back on track this week, leading up to Easter. Straight-forward enough to get 5 miles in on Monday and a quick 3 miles with No.1 son was playing football on the Tuesday. That run past the new Forthside development will be so much nicer when some of the new path network is completed.

Work interfered with Wednesday's longer run, but being off work Friday allowed me to squeeze in almost nine miles on that morning. Not bad, considering I'd done a longer-than-average run at the club session the night before. The weekly average is now consistently over 30 miles and the knees are holding out. There is something to this training and preparation lark.

The week ended with the Alloa Half Marathon, completed in a best-ever 1 hr and 40 minutes, plus some seconds. Can't complain about that and, with hindsight, I quite enjoyed the chase against the clock along the Hillfoots (why is that not Hillfeet?) from Tillycoultry to Menstrie where I realised I was going to have to maintain 7:40 miles on tiring legs for the remainder of the race. Nice t-shirt too.