How not to do it.

This is a blog about how not to prepare for races. So far I have successfully not prepared very well for a kayak race, two half marathons, and an outdoor swimming race. Currently I am doing fantastically badly at preparing for the longest race I have ever attempted.

There are two weeks to go until the kilomathon and due to another dose of very painful shin splints, and the fact that the weather has been quite grim, I haven’t really been out running, I have been playing squash, but not running.

So last week I declared to my squash partners that I am now going to focus on being ready for this race. I give it a week so that I am certain my shin splints have gone away and this Sunday I went out for a nice and easy 4 mile run. First time I have hauled on my trainers for a while, possibly first time this year… Maybe not, I can’t quite remember. That’s beside the point really. I have a 16 mile race in 13 days and so far I have run 4 miles, once. It wasn’t a very good run, my feet started to hurt and then towards the end my back ached. So yeah. Great! Four miles and my body started to groan and in two weeks time I have to do that distance 4 times over. Well, I had better up my run rate I suppose. Get out there two or three times this week and maybe a couple more the week after.

Then I get an email from the guys at the kilomaton saying that it’s time to taper the training. I need to reduce my weekly mileage down so that my body is at its peak condition ready for the race. I have to REDUCE my mileage. I have only done four miles as it is. Gagh! I feel I might have left it a bit late in the day to start my training then.

Note to self. Don’t enter races that happen in March. Training in the winter is even less likely to happen that in the summer.