Wednesday 29 February 2012

Marathontalking.....

Two weeks have passed me by again, very quickly!  I've been so busy socially and running wise I hardly know where to begin! Thankfully I've managed to keep up with the running and fit in the socials too. Starting with son Tom's 21st Birthday, the campervan cake caused me a bit of headache and a missed yoga class on Thursday to boot.  It was worth it though as his eyes lit up as we sang the obligatory 'Happy Birthday' and he proclaimed 'it's mint!!'. Bowling and a meal ensued causing my only missed training run in the last two weeks. I forgive myself that after two tough races in two weeks, Golden Acre Park and Huddersfield but I'm saying no more! In anticipation of missing Wednesday's club run I completed a 14 mile run from Silsden to Apperley Bridge with my London marathon training husband in the morning.

The highlight though was last Wednesday evening when instead of going to club I attended Leeds University - 'Marathontalk Live', part of the 'Celebrating the Games' series of lectures.  If you haven't listened to the weekly podcasts put out by Martin Yelling and Tom Williams this will mean nothing but believe me there is a mountain of info, advice and just plain humour to be gleaned from these podcasts.  Tony Audenshaw also has a massive input in the form of 'Tony's Trials', hilarious and even more so live.  I'm now eagerly awaiting the downloadable version to listen again - it will be bizarre, I'm sure, to hear the actual conversations since I was there sat in the audience.  A small disappointment on the night was the fact that Liz Yelling was supposed to be there but due to her young daughter being unwell she was unable to attend.  She was, however, replaced by GB Olympic marathoner Tracey Morris who had agreed to step in at the last minute.  The name was familiar and I initially thought she was a Pudsey Pacer's runner.  It turned out she is actually a member of Valley Striders. Billed as 'fun runner to olympian' after she ran the Leeds Abbey Dash in 33 minutes and was fast tracked to an elite start at the London Marathon, Tracey gave us a frank insight into some of her races and a typical training week for her.  A very inspirational lady, she truly came across as just a club runner who 'done good'! No doubt I may have been on the start line of one or two local races in which she has taken part.  Listen on the Marathontalk website when it's available.  I'm sure you won't be disappointed.  You may also find yourself hooked and searching through the archives of past podcasts.  The interview with ex Eccleshill Road Runner, Diane Aykroyd (Episode 96) is particularly inspirational. Diane talks with such enthusiasm and also in a way in which 'ordinary' people can relate to. I truly admire her decision to tackle her first marathon at the age of 63.



Febulous has gone fairly well (only a small failure to hit my long run target on one occasion) and we have now moved into Marchvellous, as well as, for me, three target runs and a target long run distance each week, we now have the addition of predicting the time for a race during March.  Points are awarded for hitting the target time spot on but we are penalised equally for being faster or slower than the predicted time! Thank goodness then that my race, the Dewsbury 10k is the first of the 'double' I plan to do this coming Sunday, as I have, I think 'zipped up the man suit' and predicted that my time will be 4 minutes faster than my time for the same race last year!!  Due to Dewsbury being cancelled on 5th Feb when it snowed it now clashes with the next in the YVAA race series prompting a few of us to do both! Well there's a first for everything!










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