Pre run training schedule

The Run up to D-Day

For the benefit of anyone interested in my training programme, my schedule started in November last year when I upgraded my jogging  from 3 or 4,  6-mile runs per week to include an additional 10-miler. These runs were on a mixture of surfaces from soft woodland paths to hard tarmac roads and pavements. Then in February (remember the snow and ice?) I introduced a few 15-milers before I had to consider some tougher terrain and more meaningful gradients in order to simulate the hills of the South West Coast Path.

So, soon it was Lightwater Country Park (near Camberley in Surrey) plus the North Downs around Newlands Corner (south east of Guildford) that were dominating  my schedule and by incremental steps I was eventually churning out 3 half marathon distances per week plus 3 full marathons per week .Apart from 2 very heavy falls when my knee cartilage and a collar bone almost changed places, I was lucky to avoid chronic injuries and was in reasonably good nick for the Big Day. The only other change in my schedule was to rope in the use of Camberley’s multi-storey  car park and run up and down the staircase 10 times in order to simulate the many stepped paths on the coastal route. Great exercise but bloody awful views!

 Other than that, the major part of the preparation was in seeking sponsorship for Great Ormond Street Hospital and with very  generous donations from friends, neighbours, relatives and local companies our target  of £2,000 was soon within range much to GOSH’s delight.  Never have so many dished out such dosh for a dash to help GOSH!  But none of this would have been possible without the input of my 2 secret weapons, namely,  my wife Pat,  administrator extraordinaire,  and the fact that we are both retired!

Our 2 granddaughters, Maddie, 9  and Lucy, 7, Evans (both full-time scallywags) contributed as well by dubbing me with the status of “granddad” .

So, all the preparations have more or less kept to schedule and we just hope that when the Big Day

arrives (Friday 2^nd September) the weather man/lady will smile benignly upon us, humour the gods

and send us the gentlest of Septembers. Don’t forget to tune in to Radio Blog for the next thrilling

instalment........”The Off!”