This is it...

Twenty-five minutes of cycling today... that's it, except I'll try to jog for a few minutes on Saturday, all being well.

So there it is! In April I was a desk potato; six months later, marathon day is just about here. The outlook has changed rather drastically in the last few weeks; as the "taper" period approached, all seemed on course to be able to have a serious attempt at 3:30. Now, I think that my chances of finishing the marathon are probably about one in five or six - it seems very unlikely that my shin will let me do it; it keeps giving me strange twinges and I don't see how it can be in a state to do a marathon if it's healing from an injury like this.

I am, though, very privileged to have got to this point. It's been very enjoyable; I started from scratch, and have got to the point where I have a shot at making one of my little goals a reality - it's a thrill to be able to get from there to here. I've run a 22 mile run in training, and so know that I've done what I had to do to turn dream into reality inasmuch as I could.

I've had the privilege of experiencing another part of human life. Human experience is amazingly and fantastically diverse, and we can only experience a little part of it. I've enjoyed tasting on more. I know that the immensity of enjoyable human experience isn't a coincidence which happily "just happens" to be; I give God praise the amazing world that he has created. I know as well that my little goals in this kind of thing and whether I achieve them or not isn't the "big story" of history; that's Jesus Christ. I've really enjoyed the experience of planning, learning, training, improving, and so on. My wife has been wonderfully supportive of my latest mad scheme, and I will in all honesty likely not achieve what I set out to do.

Before I get to the start line on Monday (presuming no more incidents!) I'll have to try to erase the likelihood of failure from my thinking because it'll be irrelevant once the starter's gun goes. I intend to give it my best shot; I don't intend to stop running until my legs fall off. You can't do these things if the word "can't" exists in your thinking up until the point that you have no option at all. I'll give it my all, and we'll see what happens. Just because I say "one chance in four" doesn't mean I'm thinking I'm defeated already. I'm going for it; it's all or nothing! Dublin here we come!

David
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It's good to be tired

Another 7.1 miles cycled - the first consecutive days of significant exercise for a couple of weeks. It's a good feeling. Six days to go!

David
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Some cycling

I calculate that last week I had a total of, hmmm, 78 minutes of exercise. Oh dear!

Well, today I cycled for just under 73 minutes, around 13 miles. The aim of this is just to keep up my cardio-vascular fitness... the fact that it involves legs is a bonus. It's good to get the heart pumping again.

David
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Another cycle ride

I don't feel the shin splint any more in just going around the house. I had a short walk this morning; I think I could just about detect it at the end, but that might have been by imagination.

Anyway, to remain on the safe side at this stage I didn't run today, but cycled again - 10 miles / 49:31. With a day's rest tomorrow, I'm hoping to try a jog on Monday and see how the shin responds - that'll be six days between runs. I've been very blessed with being free of injuries - I haven't had more than one consecutive day without a run since July! 22 miles run this week, and 20 cycled. Just 23 days to go now.

David
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Definitely a shin splint

Like probably most of my UK readers, I now have rubbish collections only ever fortnight. It's tough to get everything in the bin, and I normally have to resort to jumping up and down on top of the rubbish to squash it down. Just doing that today made me feel a bit of pain in my shin - definitely a shin splint.

Hence I didn't run today, but instead went cycling for 50 minutes / 10 miles. (That's slower than world class marathoners run 10 miles!). I don't know how valuable that is or isn't; it should maintain my general fitness; if I cycle exclusively the muscles will probably develop in the wrong proportions. I have no idea; but I don't think I have much of a choice at the moment.

David
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