Tip Number 1

After running 15 miles, use the gentlest soap you can find to wash yourself. Never use Tea Tree and Mint shampoo. You could possibly wake up the whole neighbourhood from their Sunday morning lie in by the shouts that shockingly jerk out of yourself when rubbing it in to your most sensitive areas.

A dedication to Si

I think my biggest worry about training for the marathon is getting injuries. It means you feel sore, can't train, and have too much time to think about everything that can go wrong in between now and getting to the end of the marathon. I ran a 12 miler around a month ago and my knees didn't recover for a tense four days. In the time it took to recover I had decided I'd not do any more long runs before the big day, the pain would never go away and that my knees would implode and blow my shins into my metatarsals - there are more than one as we all know by now - as I pass Westminster on April 13th. After the pain had gone though and a pleasant 4 mile run was over, all the worries went too.

My mate at work has just returned to his treadmill after two weeks recovering from a 14 mile run that he knew he shouldn't have completed almost straight from the start. He's since decided not to follow his intermediate routine and go on a beginners schedule and just aim to get round on the day. But my bet is in a week's time he'll be back wanting to at least beat a time in the lower 4th hour on the day.

On Sunday my knees hurt but recovered for a run on Tuesday. I ran at lunch time with a colleague and we decided to go up to a lake and run around it 3 times. At the beginning of the third lap pride got the better of me when I should have just said: 'let's go back as my knees are tender'. As I left the post run shower it wasn't my knees that were in pain but my foot. It felt as though it was cramped up. This meant I didn't run yesterday and there was still a slight twinge this morning and I wondered if I should have gone out today on it. 6 miles later, if it was chopped off right here and now I would be grateful. Hopefully I haven't committed a running sin and over trained on an injury but we'll see. My worries have started.

I know this is a selfish ask but if you pray please say a little one for my right sole (and soul while you're there), cross your fingers if you cross fingers, and if you're Daoist please throw out some yin to my painful yang.

This final paragraph is the dedication to Si who has the ultimate marathon injury (see attached blog).

Thanks Lance

Lance Armstrong congratulated me on my furthest run yet, today, in my preparation for this year's London Marathon on April 13th. I took the congratulations in my stride, put my ipod and its Nike+ attachment back in my pocket, then hobbled home.  (If you have an Ipod Nike+ you'll know what I mean, if not, Lance Armstrong congratulated me - let's leave it at that).  The hobble was supposed to be a 200 metre warm down.  But it was definitely a hobble marked by a woman who passed me while talking to her boyfriend.  She paused her conversation and in her loudest whisper, after snatching a second glance at me, said: 'He must be mad, him'. 

When I got home, my wife looked in horror at me and said that I looked like I'd been crying for the 2 hours+ that I'd been out.

I wasn't feeling great, but good that I'd completed the 3rd longest run I'll be running until the big day itself, until met by these two comments, so thanks Lance for the enthusiasm. 

So, that's my first post on my new blog which will mainly be about my runs, tips I find out about running and marathon training in the next few weeks.  But until the next run I'm off to put my feet up and knees on ice.