Reconsidering

It seems to be the way. Marathon training starts optimistically and then things go wrong. Having lost a little time with a frozen shoulder, it was hard to get back into the routine of running five times a week and I found myself unusually tired. The week before last I ran once, three miles on my birthday. By the weekend I was in the grip of a cold augmented by spectacular coughing, so there was no Sunday long run. Last week i failed to run or swim at all until Thursday. On that day I decided that I could wait forever, by which time most of my strength would have atrophied, or get out and run or die in the attempt. So in this heroic spirit I set forth, and coughed and spluttered through three miles. I lived, indeed felt a bit better at the end. On Saturday I returned to swimming training and coped with everything Alice could throw at me, even some butterfly drills, and on Sunday I ran six and a bit miles. I am now at the half-way point in a sixteen week training programme. From now on no strong drink will pass my lips.

Nevertheless, I have reorganised things somewhat. I have changed my entry from the Three Forts marathon to the half marathon, and will be training with the shorter distance in mind. I hate to miss a spring marathon, but I think I had no choice. Look at my mileage totals for the first eight weeks:

Week 1: 16.40
Week 2: 17.23
Week 3: 19.53
Week 4: 19.62
Week 5: 13.07
Week 6: 22.36
Week 7: 3.00
Week 8: 9.36

Time spent on one's feet is the sine qua non of marathon training, and though I started well the past two weeks have knocked too much of a hole in the plan to make it possible to run a very hilly marathon in early May. 

Two weeks till the Hastings half marathon
Eight weeks till the Three Forts half marathon