Missing A Long Run During Paris Marathon Training Because Of The Weather.

When I say ‘missed’ I’m lying a little.

I ran, but not very far. I fell into the trap of believing that it wasn’t worth running at all today, as if I even managed 10 miles in the ice, it’d bring my tally up to only 17 miles.

Regardless of whether it’s 7 or 17 miles, it’s not enough for this stage of marathon training.

I started feeling sorry for myself. I then felt angry at the weather for fucking up my plans.

I experienced the full gamut of emotions for an angry jogger.

Then I stopped being a fucking bitch and got out there and ran 7 miles.

Every runner in the UK and Ireland is having problems with the ice, it’s nothing personal. Getting offended at the weather is like burning with incandescent rage at a sparrow shitting on your head.

It’s not worth losing sleep over.

When the weather is bad you can either choose to sit on your ass and do damn all, go to the gym or brave the climate and try to enjoy it.

And that’s exactly what I did.

The first quarter of a mile was shit as I encountered some young hoodlums who began trotting along beside me.

They began asking me questions about why I was running and I ignored them. All but one of them gave up the chase by the quarter mile mark. This persistent bugger didn’t mean any harm, but I don’t like jogging with anyone, let alone kids.

With my nervous demeanour and lazy eye I don’t want anyone coming to any inappropriate conclusions.

So I knuckled down, did my best Forrest Gump impression and outran him. It took a while for me to pass him and I think he called me a “freaky bastard” at one point, but I came away the victor in that battle.

I felt like Farah in full flow until I gazed down to my Forerunner and saw that I was averaging a 9:30 min/mile.

And I was deeply out of breath.

Morale of story : Success can turn to defeat quickly.

But a missed long run in marathon training is not the end of the world.

I remember missing my 16 miler in my first marathon training schedule and being distraught that I’d blown everything.

It ultimately didn’t matter that much as I did the 16 miler next week and everything was OK for my first marathon.

But I’m glad that I went outside and ran 7 miles today. It will make my short runs that much easier in the coming week and it’ll set me up for a comfortable long run next Sunday.

It’s better sometimes to just go outside and do what you can with a run.

It might not seem like much at the time, but it can give you that little bit of momentum with your training that you wouldn’t receive lounging on the sofa.

This leads nicely into a running quote I’ve seen on almost every other running blog out there. It might be a gooey truism, but it is correct!