This week so far has included a visit to Birmingham, a short run, some more non-disastrous bike fettling, an attempt and immediate failure at healthier eating, Flipper walking, iPod shuffle acquiring and completion of the reading of the above two books.Survival of the Fittest is a mix of tales Mike Stroud's adventures and related human physiology. When he tells of running the Marathon de Sables, he talks about the effects of heat, when crossing Antarctica, the effects of cold, endurance events, lack of food. etc. The slightly dry, technical science is really well balanced by the exciting stuff.
Born to Run is all about ultra running, with particular reference to one Mexican tribe, the Tarahumara. And the tale of the greatest race the world has never seen.
What both books do is suggest that humans are genetically, physiologically and mentally designed and destined to run. That the answer to a lot of life's problems is at your feet. What they've both done for me personally is plant the germ of an idea.
The idea of running an ultra....... I know it might seem a bit audacious to be thinking about ultras when I have yet to do my first marathon, and maybe I'm getting a bit carried away, two good reads and a few smooth, longish training runs, but, I reckon at the moment it's got to be worth a bit of thinking time at the very least.
6 comments:
How exciting. I thought Mike Stroud's was a great book though it didn't even make me think of doing an ultra. Wished I'd done a degree in sports science though!
Hey nothing wrong with aiming long. I am impressed with your training for this marathon, this can be a stepping stone to something longer.
It also will be interesting reading for us out here!
Now which one would you choose?
Elizabeth - yeah, it's a good book. Inspiring in lots of ways.
Trio - I'm thinking about the Dorset Doddle. It's a LDWA challenge event, so open to runners, but if it all goes horribly wrong and I walk a lot I won't be abandoned anywhere. At 31 miles it's only just an ultra, but I think it might make a good next step.
So if you add 5 miles each time....in 15 races time you will be at 100!
You are sounding so sensible at the moment, must be the sensible training going to your head or something!
will put them on the list!
you're doing really well with the training-nothing wrong with making plans and ldwa challenge events are definitely a good way to increase the mileage.
Now my marathon training had me decide I never wanted to run anything longer than 15 miles again! That's tarmac for you though.
Keep planning and plotting, your doing fantastically well and its great to see your enthusiasm shining through in your blog.
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