A New Book

I felt the time was right for a new book and after looking at many reviews I decided that 'brain training for runners' was the one for me.  It's heavy reading - small words, big pages and words I have to keep looking up but, between the clever writing there are some interesting bits.  As I always do I turned immediately to the training schedules at the back, I go through the Sundays first because they are always the hardest days and was instantly disappointed - running, more flippin' running!.

For the first time I questioned this disappointment, what exactly was I hoping to see?

Week 1 - 'spend a couple of hours in a spa, go on, you've earned it'
Week 2 - 'if the sun is shining get yourself down to the beach for a days sunbathing'
Week 3 - 'quick jog out to pick up the Sunday papers then put your feet up and watch a good film with one or two glasses of your favourite wine'

. . . . it's not going to happen, doesn't matter how many books you buy or schedules you seek out on line then Viv, for the love of God . . . there will always be running, lots and lots of running!!!!!.


Now that I've got that sorted maybe I can get on . . . .

At the moment I'm reading about the brain, seriously, the bits that make up the brain and what bit controls which part of the things we do, there are diagrams with arrows and long names, the kind you had to memorise at school, the kind that totally turned me off of anything to do with science.  I'm trying to stay with it though because eventually I'm hoping to get to the bit that will teach me how I can take control of my brain in order that it can work with me rather than against me as it has been doing for so many years.  I want to find the off switch to the little narrator in my head that despite any amount of ambition, hope, training and hard work recites to me, on a loop, 'you can't do it' - 'I know you can't do it'


The book also includes some very silly looking exercises but I do feel they are all designed to make you stronger from the inside and I think I need a bit of that.

One of the most interesting bits in this book is a list from 1 to 50 giving you your target times for 5k, 10k, half and full marathons.  If I tell you that the marathon target time at number 1 is 2 hours 9 minutes and 2 seconds it gives you some idea of the target audience for this book.  I decided to go for a 'TPL' (that's what they call it) of 46 but following this mornings first session of week 1 of an 18 week schedule to a 10k race at 'base pace' I have had to downgrade myself to a 'TPL' of 50 and even then I'm a bit off the pace.  Even at 50 though I'm looking at a marathon target time of 4 hours 49 minutes and 17 seconds, a massive 2 hours and 2 minutes off my PB!!!! and I think anything under 5 hours would be amazing, so I'll go with that, it gives me a 10k target time of 1 hour 3 minutes and 46 seconds - that sounds quite quick at the moment.

Anyway, I'm on my way, just need to find a 10k race in 18 weeks time.