Training for Goofy (October 6th 2007)

I’m running faster each week in my training, and my enthusiasm for running has nearly being getting the better of me. I’m starting to feel invincible and the problem with that is I might try and do too much and get injured. Avoiding injury has to be one of my major goals because injury only leads to time when you cannot run, and that wouldn’t achieve anything.

You can see my overconfidence in that I told my coach that I believe I can run below 3 hours 30 next week, which is probably true. His reply was perhaps I could but I would be better off aiming for 3:35. This is because I am training for the Goofy Challenge in January, and in my enthusiasm for this upcoming marathon (in Leicester) I suppose I didn’t think about that.

He is right of course. I shouldn’t be trying to run a faster marathon now as everything I do between now and January should be to prepare myself for Goofy. So, I shall not worry too much about the time in next week’s marathon, and enjoy the occasion. After all this will be my first marathon since 1998. I’ve done half marathons and 10ks in this time, but really I have been pretty inconsistent with my running (until the past year).