COUNTDOWN

Various countdowns have commenced.

My 10-week-training plan for the Edinburgh Marathon (and hopefully a sub 4:00) begun last week. In fact I turned the plan upside down by doing my longest run of 22M yesterday with the girls from the club training for London and Lochaber. This was 6 days after I run the Balloch to Clydebank HM in a new PB (by 16sec) of 1:51:18 (not chipped). So in the last 7 days I had my highest "mileage" for ages, 81km! Crazy I know but I thought it might be a good base as I am not sure if I will get all the required longer runs in over the next few weeks as it will be very busy. I am also still chasing my first sub 1:50 in a HM and had hoped I would do it last week. But it turns out I was not in the best shape and the route was not really flat flat but had a few inclines I think!

Anyway, on to the much more important countdown! 7 days to the 100K Championships in Perth where Thomas will be wearing a Scotland vest for the 1st time! I am so proud of him for being selected into the team and hope he can show in what good a shape he is in. This is a big deal, in fact the biggest for this year I think and he has put so much dedication and effort into his preparation that I just hope everything will come together next Sunday.

Supporting wise I thought this might be an easy one but to the contrary! After being handed a laminated "Perth 100k split calculator" (Yes. Laminated! This is how serious it is!) and a lecture as to its exact use, my head started to spin - and I am not even running. The laminated table will tell me after every lap what pace, distance etc he has done and I have to then write it on a board so he can see it when he passes. So I got myself a board, proper round-the-neck stop watch and hope I won't loose track of the laps! Only problem is that he will hopefully come round every 10-11 min or so. When I will be able to go for a coffee or a toilet break I don't know. To me the WHW support sounds much easier - at least you have a few HOURS in between some stops.

Good luck to the Scotland team on Sunday. It will be an honour for both of us to be part of it. Good luck for everyone else running the 50K or 100K. If I could only wrap my runner in cotton wool until then so no last-minute injury or infection can strike ...

K2 Radicals 100

Meet my brand new skates! K2 radical 100 speedskates!

They are a late birthday present from Thomas as it took me a while to find the right size even though I had my eyes on them since Berlin last year. In fact I have been toying with the idea of speedskates for 2 years now.

For the 1st time I am the proud owner of speedskates. I will happily swap my fitness skates and put on these. They have 4 100mm wheels (compared to 90mm before) and should make me (even! :-) ) faster.

They arrived from Germany at my work and I quickly tried them out before we opened our doors. They seem great. The problem is that you actually have to go slightly smaller than your usual size as they need to fit tight enough to allow a good connection between your feet and the actual skate to transfer the energy so slipping or double socks etc is no use. So size wise the contrary to your running shoe sizing.

Anyway I can't wait to take them out for a spin!

And as we have also just entered the Berlin Marathon again (Thomas just about managed to get a charity place as all other 40.000 places were taken!) I will be trying for a new PB, definitely sub 1:40, maybe even towards 1:35. IF it is dry on the day unlike on previous 3 occasions!