On easy street

Today was my longest run before the marathon next week. 12 miles, 10 at marathon pace. All my remaining runs are in single digits and at an easy pace. Last year I remember feeling very sluggish during this period so I won't be surprised or worried if that happens this year too. Experience is handy.

I've just finished reading a book called Eat and Run by Scott Jurek. If you don't know him he's an ultrarunner. Probably the best in the world and his book is a bit of an eye opener. Sometimes I feel tired and my legs ache while training for a marathon but it pales into insignificance next to what Scott does. He will quite happily go off on a run of 50 miles at a faster pace than I can run a marathon at. During competitions he will run up to 150 miles and run the latter stages at around 7 minute mile pace. That is some serious running right there. I've often thought I'd like to do a race longer than marathon distance but I reckon I'd have to give it at least a year of training to get to the level that I would want. Maybe it will be one of my things to do before I'm 50 (in about four and a half years!).

On Sunday I ran 10 miles along the canal and then through Southall and back home to Ealing. As I ran through Southall at about 8:30am I passed a man on a BMX (call me weird but I never trust adults riding on a BMX). He turned his bike around and started cycling behind me about 5 metres back. This was on a relatively busy street so I wasn't too worried and thought maybe I was being paranoid and that it was a coincidence. After about 200m I could still see him in my peripheral vision slowly cycling behind me. I thought I would test him out and crossed the road. Immediately he stopped cycling and went back the other way. I have no idea what his plan was. Maybe he was just curious to see a man running. Maybe it was another coincidence (unlikely). Anyway, I've mentioned on here before that I sometimes feel like being in an impervious bubble whilst running but these things make you realise that you should always be aware of your surroundings.

Last week my tiny video camera arrived as well as the 16GB memory card. All in it cost around £8 which is practically giving it away. It came with a number of attachments to clip on to clothing or a cycling helmet etc. It also has a protective sleeve to give some protection from the rain.

Tiny video camera or massive hand?

I took it out for a run on Monday just to see how it felt and what sort of quality video I could get. It hardly weighed anything so that was a bonus. I did however have difficulty holding it steady and managed to capture the sky more than the path I was running. I might take it out again to see if I can improve both the shakiness and the angle of video. Anyway, here it is in all its glory:

[Update: for some reason the video is really jerky. I've uploaded it twice and have also uploaded to youTube all with the same result. I will try to fix this for the next video I upload]

This weekend I have two 8 mile runs. I might run along the canal for the final time if the weather is good (when it rains the path has a habit of gathering large puddles). Anyway, it's pretty much relaxed jogging for the next week and a bit and then I run a marathon. Simple, eh?