This is (Marathon training) 43

" His age was indeterminate. But in cynicism and general world weariness, which is a sort of carbon dating of the personality, he was about seven thousand years old." Terry Pratchett Guards! Guards! Getting old is funny isn't it? Becoming aware of your own mortality, convincing yourself your not old, but your son is convinced you are ancient. Plucking nose hairs, noticing grey hairs, forgetting why you went into a room, back ache. The symptoms are all there. But worst of all is this depressing stat about fitness: "runners tend to slow by three to six per cent over the course of their 40s, by 10 per cent per decade in their 50s and 60s, and by 15 per cent per decade after 70, as their strength, flexibility and bone density diminish. Now for the good news: much can be done to fend off the decline." This is not the end of the quote though, as the subsequent line, makes it a shit sandwich: "If you haven’t already started a strength training regime (which helps runners at any age), it’s more important now than ever. Muscle mass declines by roughly eight per cent per decade after the age of 40 and strength training helps to counteract that loss, while also building muscular scaffolding to ease the burden of running on ageing joints. Spend 30 minutes twice a week targeting muscles that running often misses (such as glutes, hips, core and arms). Use your body as weight, by doing squats, lunges, press-ups and planks." It then talks about foam rollers, but I'd check out by this point. I cannot stress how much I hate strength training. And yet here we are, trying out yoga and Joe wicks videos. The problem is, when it comes to training, I pretty much make this up as I go along. I am not someone to look at and go, now Russ, when it comes to training, he knows his stuff. I have a rough idea what vo2 max is, and ftp, but It's not something I've based exercise on. I mean lets look at how I got into each of my chosen exercises: Cycling: In 2011 I convinced myself, I could cycle from Vietnam and Cambodia. After a quick chat with Em, we revised this to Land's End to John O'Groats. I had no bike or earthly clue what I was doing. Running, I started seriously in 2018, and when I say serious, it was to run a half marathon, before a mate did, for no other reason than to piss him off. So it's safe to say, I'm not someone who has really followed a training plan. Case in point. My next Marathon is 10 weeks away and I've done one long run. So I have 10 weeks to be Marathon ready. And a toddler, and a couple of bike rides to train for, A new job and occasionally, I better spend sometime with Em. So suddenly I'm a guy doing interval runs, tempo runs and do you want to know the worst of it: In two weeks my vo2 has gone up and my target times have plummeted. So now I have to see it through. Especially as I have a deluded idea of running a sub 4 hour marathon. Sigh, I have work to do: https://www.justgiving.com/page/russellbrookes2025