A few musings

I was looking back over my Blog yesterday and I hope it is showing the progress I've been making.  I think it does, and I'm really enjoying keeping it going.  I really do think that for me, the Garmin GPS/Heart Rate Monitor and the RunSaturday sites are really motiviating and I'm planning on continuing on using those into the new year and up to the race.  I need to find out if I'm permitted to use the device on the race day itself, because it would be great to have a map of the actual route I ran on the day.  I can't really see a reason why I can't use it, but it would be good to check.

My Father In Law (who has several marathons under his belt himself) has leant me the Haile Gebrselassie book, which I've started to read.  Googling his name is really interesting reading and this phenomenal athlete still holds the world record for the marathon with a staggering time of 2h03:59, at the age of 35.  I was listening to a Podcast of him the other day and he is planning on running the event in London 2012, as he was saying that he has never won London.

I've got a few targets in my mind over the next weeks and I really need to start increasing the running if I can, but obviously stay injury free.  I'm not sure if I'm over doing it, but since I've been training I've had two minor niggles that have kept me from training (one in my right heel, and one in my left knee) but I'm very aware I need to keep up the miles, so it is a dilemma.  Reading back over my training, and comparing it with training schedules I've seen, I don't think I've been overdoing it so I'll have to keep going and keep an eye out for any injury flare ups.  Although my current trainers are proper runner shoes and are fine, I do need a new pair for the event, so I'm hoping that a new pair will help keep any injuries away.

My favourite sport is F1....I really love it, and have been fortunate to be at Silvertone a couple of times on the F1 race weekend.  The big news in the run up to Xmas was that Michael Schumacher is returning to race in the new Mercedes team at the age of 41.  Watching the interview to me seems that he is really hungry for it and I hope he mixes it up at the top next year.  Why am I mentioning this on a running blog?  Well, I remember reading a few years ago about the training and preparation Schumacher went through to keep in top form in his Ferrari days and it was astounding.  These guys are top class athletes, but Schumacher took it to another level, and the rest of the field had to follow in order to have a chance of staying in touch.  It will be really interesting to see if Schumacher still has that fitness, or at least can get back to near that fitness, after retiring in 2006.  One of my favourite videos on YouTube is of him flying around the Top Gear track in his own £1m Ferrari FXX...what a driver!