Biting the bullet.

Day 2 of the rest of my summer of Lydiard-slash-Rosa-slash-Malmo. How can I do this you ask? Well they are similar. Gabriel Rosa is or perhaps was the greatest marathon coach ever. Lydiard is the greatest middle and long distance coach ever however, if you point a Smith & Wesson at me and demand, "you have to tell me Lydiard's weakest distance or I will pull the trigger." I would answer with, "the marathon", then dive at your legs, breaking them at the knee, while simultaeously grabbing the weapon and deploying one hunk of spinning led into your small toe. This will forever leave an identifiable hitch in your gait. Forever is a long time, pilgrim.

Consider yourself branded.

Rosa's marathon training program is taken from Lydiard's only he has inserted an AT-specific type phase in between the aerobic development phase and the hill phase. With a graphic, you would point and declare, "there lies an extreee pyramid, in Lydiard's program!" And by rights, you would be correct.

I need to read more about why this phase is there to understand it better, but it is clear that it is added to strengthen the runner for the hill phase, I'll bite!

So right at this flaming and blazing, red hot moment in the time-space-continuum, I am in the aerobic development phase, which will last up to 16 weeks. The first two weeks of which are to be a bit softer.

So in case you are wondering what the heck happened at the Lochside 10k, I will tell you. Months of lower than optimal mileage did not prepare me for 3, 10k races in 4 weeks. Additionally, I needed to get yard work done the day before and wouldn't you guess it! I spent too much time in the warm sun doing yard work. Lesson not learned - life gets in the way.

Also, I ran all alone for all of the race except for the first 1km. The group of guys I should have been able to stick with through 4 and maybe up to 6kms took off 3 abreast across the road, whereas we talked about working together and drafting each other. This could have worked better if I could keep up - goes without saying.

Anyway, no worries! I am now in that phase of heavy and steady aerobic running. I am biting the bullet and resisting all races and speedwork until well into August, Giddyup Rosa!