This is more complicated than I thought?

This marathon running is really weird - you can never consider that just because you have achieved a particular time or so many miles, you have it in the bag!. On Monday and then again on Wednesday I managed 50 minutes, since then though I have struggled with 20 minutes.  The weather has definitely 'turned' and suddenly I'm dealing with 'wind chill' - I think I have discovered where that daft thing your mum used to say when you pulled a silly face, came from - you know the one, 'the wind will change and you'll get stuck like that', because when you run and it's icy cold, your body does warm up but your face freezes! I only notice it when I pass a dog walker and I attempt to smile and it comes out as an odd kind of grimace!.

Anyway, along with wind chill the roads have been a bit slippy, on Friday there was snow, I have a mountain of washing that I can't do until I can get the wet stuff dry, a dryer that just won't work fast enough, another mountain of ironing, a house to clean, presents to wrap, cards still to write, a christmas dinner to give at least 5 minutes thought to - oh and work - until Thursday.  The knee is beginning to niggle ever so slightly again and I don't feel great, nothing I can really put my finger on, just a tiny bit shattered - but these are all excuses and I really don't have time for excuses.

I have, over the weeks given this training a great deal of thought and come to the conclusion that whilst on one level it is quite simple, as I have mentioned previously, it's just a case of putting one foot in front of the other constantly over a distance of just over 26 miles at a pace just above a fast walk.  But when you begin to look deeper it is so much more than this.  You have to be able to control your breathing over this time, I think they call this 'cardio vascular' training.  You have to build your muscles up so they are capable of carrying you round, not sure what they call this?.  You need to put the right type and quantity of fuel inside your body to assist you getting round, diet.  Hopefully too you will arrive at the start feeling healthy, well and without injury - then of course there's Will!.  The skill is making all of these things come together at the same time, if one element is missing then it all goes very wrong, very quickly as I seem to find out frequently.

I have done a bit more investigating online regarding diet, the amount of veg and fruit you are supposed to eat is really quite scary, in order to get it all in I think I shall have to start putting veg on my cereal.  Anyway, the diet, the cardio vascular thingy, the muscles are all things I know how to do something about, it's the 'will' that I seem to have no control over.  I guess if you can afford a personal coach then you are effectively buying a certain amount of 'will' to run along beside you but I can't afford to buy any 'will' so I somehow have to summon it all for myself and that's hard when your ears are frozen, your knee hurts and you're ever so slightly scared of the large dog coming towards you off it's lead!.

I have decided that over the next week or so I am just going to keep myself ticking over, if I can do 20 - 25 minutes a day that will be fine.  I have discovered yet another training programme that actually explains why you're doing what you're doing.  It's by breakthrough, it also tells you how to test your fitness levels by measuring your resting heart rate and then again when you've exercised.  It's over 16 weeks so starts on 2.1.12.  Over the next week and a bit I'm going to find Will, somehow, I have to start 2012 with Will by my side!.