Uphill after the sewerage problem

I’ve often advocated runners aspiring to run under 2.45 for the marathon the advice that they should be able to routinely bash out 10 miles in the hour on a fast course.

I label in a “day at the office session”. It should leave you tired at the end but you should still be comfortable turning up for work again the next day.

I have been training for the past year in the belief that I have at least one more sub 2.45 hour marathon in my legs but I really missed the NSC roadway last winter as a place to perform the training session I advocate. When it re-opened, I only ran one in about 62 minutes and I only just ran the marathon (London) under 2.50.

I was determined to rectify that this summer as I build up for the Amsterdam marathon in October. With my current routine, which involves training before work, this necessitates climbing out of bed just before 5.30 with the aim of starting at 6. I found the motivation to do so this morning but had barely run half a lap when I found the NSC roadway fenced off by Island Drainage.

I’m sure that more regular users of the NSC will have been notified of the closure of the roadway for several days but it came as a shock to me. The words I muttered, out of hearing from the men who were only doing their duty at the crack of dawn, would have described sewerage equally well.

I found it hard to convert my motivation to another course and made a half hearted effort to run through Farmhill and round to the promenade.

I had hoped to add to the website content when I got back but I’ve got a few extra household jobs for the next days as Marie has gone away until Saturday. So instead of scanning an old programme I had a programme of scanning the house.