Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

It's marathon weekend, finally.  I've clocked up over 500 miles of running since the middle of April.  Before then, I hadn't run in probably 10 years, and even then I'd never taken it seriously.  I've only really had 3 months of training, since breaking my collar bone put a spanner in the works but since then I have taken it a lot more seriously, and put a lot more miles in than I might otherwise have done.

So, we'll see the fruits of those labours on Sunday.  I feel ok now - a little tense perhaps (not helped by other issues out of my control - more of that in the weeks to come, perhaps) but my legs are in good shape.  My achilles is a little tender and my calves a bit tight but all in all, I'm ready.

Iain is arriving tonight and then we drive up tomorrow, which I'm not particularly looking forward to (it's quite a distance).  Becky and Emily are coming along for the trip, for which I am thankful.  I miss them too much when I'm away.

I'm still aiming to go under 4 hours, and hopefully a bit more but it's difficult to accurately predict anything, especially with no previous experience.  Pacing is going to be a wee bit tricky since the course rolls up and down, with the first half being quicker than the second.  I have a plan though...

Anyway, wish me luck.  If anyone reading this would like to add to my sponsorship total, then I'd be glad of it.  Visit my justgiving site to do just that.

So, I'm back to work after a week away in the Scottish Highlands with Becky, Emily and the Grandparents. Chris and Lily joined us for a couple of days as well, which was good - I think my mum particularly enjoyed having them around.

We hired a cottage in the grounds of Kinlochmoidart House from these people. It was a decent size with a big living area and comfortable bedrooms. The big house itself looked very nice as well. I'm not sure what the deal was but it seemed to be fully stocked with Germans for the week.

Kinlochmoidart House is in Moidart which is part of the peninsula west of Fort William and south of Maillaig, including Ardnamurchan, Sunart and Ardgour. It's very pretty and I don't think many Scots have even heard of it. It's worth a trip.

The original intention behind the trip was to allow the Grandparents to spend some time with Emily, for Becky and her Mum and Dad to see a bit of my country that they hadn't seen before and to allow me the opportunity to get some hillwalking done. Unfortunately, circumstances and the weather meant that I didn't get to indulge myself but the hills aren't going anywhere. I'll restart my munro-bagging career some time soon, I'm sure (79 down, 209 to go).

The trip involved a lot of driving (1200 miles for the week) which is inevitable in the Highlands. Over the week we went to Tyndrum, Bridge of Orchy, Glencoe, Fort William, Mallaig, Glenfinnan, Fort Augustus, Spean Bridge and Skye. We didn't really do much apart from sightsee and eat. It's difficult to find activities that everyone can do when your mobility is limited with my mum in her buggy and Emily in her pram.

All in all, it was a good week. I'm actually quite tired now though after playing tour guide for the family and driving a lot. I didn't get a great deal of running in either (3 short-ish runs only) but since I'm tapering, it shouldn't matter. I did eat too many puddings though.

Photographs can be found here. I've a few more to upload still.

Finally.

Yesterday was my last (really) long run before Loch Ness, another 20 miles. This one was far less unpleasant than the other three were. I purposefully tried to keep my HR low (below 150 for the most of the first two thirds and a 150 average) and despite that, my pace was only 10 or 15 seconds a mile slower than the last one.

The big difference this time was that I seem to have recovered particularly well. Usually, I have difficulty walking downstairs for a couple of days afterwards because my quads are brutalised. Today, I just ran 4.5 miles at a low HR and a pretty good pace and I have no muscle pain at all. Which is nice.

The next three weeks involve steadily reducing the mileage - next week's longest run is 15 miles, then the week after is only 10, then it's the big event. My fitness has peaked now, I'm not going to get any faster but I do need to maintain what I do have, so I can't just sit around eating and playing videogames.

We're going away for a week in a cottage in the highlands next Saturday, so I'll probably get some hillwalking in (first time since the Wales 3000s) if the weather is decent.