Wishing everybody a peaceful, prosperous, and successful new year. I will continue to run and blog and hope that this time next year we will still be in contact and better runners/people for the experience.
All the best
Scott Brown
Bye the way I'm all set up with Skype and if you'd like to talk sometime I can be found under the name "abenokibrown"
Well that's, the title of this post, what I'm telling myself. Did 3:17:50 a full 2 minutes faster than my previous best time so I'd have to be happy with that. It ended up being near perfect conditions so I didn't have to worry about that and as this came on the back of a pretty average build up and mileage I should be satisfied.
I do know one thing for sure I will really have to train hard and have things all come together on the day if I'm going to get anywhere near under 3 hours.
But you'll be happy to know today didn't deter me from that goal.
The photo was taken by Kato san a fellow Kawachinagano running club member and it is 200 metres from the finish of today's marathon. And if you look closely you can see that I'm getting some "air!" ;)
I can't believe my luck when it comes to rain. I just checked the weather and it is going to rain on this Sunday. Seriously the last time it rained on Sunday here was the last race I ran. This would be funny if it happened to someone else, Ewen for example. But frankly I'm a little pissed off.
Any advice for running marathons in the rain and/or uplifting stories about you or anyone you know running a PB in the cold drivng rain.
As the clip says "I'm looking for a perfect sky."
By the way this song sung by Bonnie Pink features "Ebi Chan" the lastest teen idol here. "Ebi" is "Prawn" and "Chan" a title for young girls. The prawn reference comes from the fact that she made her debut in a TV commerial for the McDonalds "Ebi Burger."
I have a few things to say but also pretty tired tonight. As I was "torn" between posting and going to bed I thought about this clip. I reckon it makes a good compromise.
I've had a good week and feeling pretty fit. Had three great sessions this week, a long run, 31kms, on Sunday, a speed session on Tuesday 2mins flat out 2mins jog recovery, 1min flat out, 1min jog, 30 seconds flat out and 30 seconds jog, x 3. And a 15km run on Weds @ an average of 4:30 per km. The reason I'm happy about all this is that I did them all relatively easily.
I don't want to put a jinx on myself but I'm really feeling good about my marathon on the 23rd. The foot pain is down to a slight burn and even with a bit of partying recently I've been able to keep the weight down.
I'm still a bit worried about my lack of kms in the build up but I have a secret training method that sometimes helps in cases like these. Now don't go writing into the running site's noticeboards cause its an advantage I'd like to keep pretty much under wraps. What I do is, I've learnt the words to "Cantaloop" see video, and I sing these at the top of my voice while dancing under a alternatively burning hot and ice cold shower. Please try it and let me know how it goes for you. If you're worried about your mother/father, wife/husband or children, boyfriend/girlfriend coming in mid session you could do it in some bicycle pants. A good idea too for those old fellas prone to shrinkage, pun intended. "Bid de Bid de Bop!!"
I finally signed up to "facebook" the other day. I mean I've been resisting cause I know that I'm going to spend more time over there than I should, but I think I'll try it. Not that I will give up this blog, not as long as Ewen and Speedygeoff and a half dozen others, you know who you are, continue to blog.
"Facebook" seems interesting but I don't like when they ask questions like: "What are your favorite books?" And "What are your favorite movies?" I mean I've read a fair bit and of course watched a few movies, still, I feel I always come off like a dill when I say what they are. I just think I'm not as "highbrow" as most. A bit like the following.
Sorry for the delay in posting, I've be lurking but shirking. Anyway I'm fine, working a bit more than I'd like but can't complain about that.
I've lost 6 kgs in the last 5 weeks and feel good but my ankle is still not 100% and I've cut out a few runs to try to rest it. That seems to have helped as it is definitely getting better but I'm a little worried that I'm under done, kms wise, for my up coming marathon on Dec 23rd.
Well just thankful that I've lost the extra weight that I put on over the summer here and that the ankle is almost healed. I was thinking that as this is my 7th attempt at a full marathon and if I hit the start line with no other problems my experience and my 4 years of accumulated kms might be enough to see me to a PB. I've still been doing about 50 to 70kms a week for the past three months just haven't been able to get in the couple of 100km weeks that I wanted to do before this next marathon.
We will see. I'll let you know how the training goes for the remaining three weeks.
I'll leave you now with a favourite song from my youth. Actually still is. This kind of music probably doesn't do much for you there in Australia as you still may hear it often but for me it is special for the memories it brings, I reckon I haven't heard this song for close on 20 years.
