My first week of training

I have completed my first full week of training for the marathon - and it's only now beginning to sink in how much I've taken on. 

My plan was to alternate easy and hard days, and on the whole that came off well this week.  My hard days got progressively harder during the week.  My easy days, on the other hand, got progressively easier, to the point of doing nothing at all on the last one.  I must have some inner karmic impulse that is trying to balance things.

That's not a tan - my face turns
crimson when I exercise

All told I ran (and walked) 17.5 miles.  Not much, for anyone who is a regular runner, but it's a start.  Rome wasn't built in a day, and I won't be turned into a marathon runner in just a week.

I did learn a few interesting things:

• I have to eat when I finish a run - otherwise I feel like I'm coming down with the flu!
• It's not the end of the world if I don't stretch;
• I really need to strengthen my abdominal muscles - they make a huge difference to the amount of oxygen I can take in, but then get sore very fast;
• Walking hurts my legs more than running.

All of you runners will be telling me this is obvious stuff, but there's nothing like learning by doing.

I've also come to love and hate Richard's micoach.  This is a gadget that measures your pace and heartbeat as you run, and can give you readings of these, as well as elapsed time.  I normally use it on "free" mode - I keep track of my own running plans - but you can programme it to coach you to speed up, slow down, walk, etc over pre-planned intervals.  It clips to your clothes, so that's one less thing that needs a pocket.

Sounds good, doesn't it?  Unfortunately, it has two serious failings.  The lesser one is that it doesn't measure your heartbeat until you are exercising reasonably vigorously - enough to raise your breathing rate noticeably.  In other words, you don't get a view of your resting or walking heart rate.

The truly appalling thing about it, though, is that you can't download the data!  Those who know me well will appreciate how much I hate this.  The micoach produces interesting graphs which you can alter as much as Adidas has assumed you will want to.  Unfortunately, there is no facility for transferring it to your computer where you can have a proper go at analysis.

There is one final lesson I've learned from training this week: it's a really good thing that I have a six month run-up to the marathon.  I'm going to need it.  Running hard makes me ill, walking four miles makes my legs sore.  I have a considerable way to go before I can even walk the marathon in one day, never mind run it.