the long run

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 04 April 2004 21:23:42

i've been following a training schedule that relies on cross training more and has less emphasis on weekly long runs than previously. this works great at integrating with my triathlon training, but is leaving me feeling a little undertrained for marathon running. so i was pleased to have a long run scheduled for today, my last before the marathon on april 25th.

to make life interesting i ran first into the city centre....
the streets were still littered with evidence of a saturdat night of pub and takeaway. discarded carcasses of chip wrappers, polystyrene burger boxes and cardboard chicken boxes drew me to a poetic parallel between the scavenging hordes unleashed when the pubs kick out and a pack of hyenas.

on to the canal basin following the towpath as it winds it's way out of the city. an interesting range of derelict high sided brick buildings built right up to the canal with their chimneys & smokestacks like some kind of minarets echoing a forgotten religion of industry and enterprise. some are still in use, some have been flattened to be replaced by supposedly desireable flats, one old chimney has sprouted mobile phone masts.
i pass under a mixture of old brick bridges and newer concrete slabs. eventually i pass under the M6 which rumbles 30ft or so above me, supported on a forest of stilts it's both an impressive and a depressing sight.

once under the M6 there's a step change in surroundings with much more greenery and fields to see. i come to hawkesbury junction where the coventry canal which i'm following and the oxford canal meet. i take the oxford canal and head off, there was probably a public loo there but i missed that opportunity, and regretted it later in the run. shortly after leaving the junction i pass a sign that says 'oxford 50 miles' it's tempting but i think i'll leave that for another day! part of this section is shadowed by the M6 very closely and it's really loud! it'd be a great bit of path if it wasn't for that.
i pass my time counting off the bridges, i know i have to leave the canal at no.34 but i suspect they started from no.1 when i left the junction. quite uneventful this bit, i wave to a few people on boats, and even overtake one. there's a lovely high bridge with old bricked supports and steel girdered deck, i'm not sure what it was carrying.

bridge 34 finally arrives and i climb the stairs to join the road, my gps says 14miles and my watch says over 2hrs so i know the terrain has made me slower than i'd hoped. i run down the road through brinklow and for the first time realise i'm actually bored! the rest of the run is a struggle as i follow the roads making a bee-line for home.

i'm confident i covered at least 20miles (gps says 19.6) and the time was 3hrs20.

my previous half marathon time tells me i could go for a much faster marathon time, but this run confirms i don;t have the training for it at the moment. so for the race in a few weeks time i shall expect a personal best still, but try to take it easy up to 20miles.

[this weeks totals: 3.6km swim 50miles bike 23.25miles run]