The man dressed as a banana

I really enjoy listening the the Marathon Talk podcast. I have always found it entertaining and informative and I particularly like the interviews. I am usually plugged in when on the turbo while doing my lower intensity sessions or I listen in the evening before going to bed. During part of the podcast this week Martin Yelling was talking about having a reason to train and get out of the door and this was quite timely as one of my reasons for getting my head down and doing some hard work towards a spring marathon is the man dressed as a banana. I have actually been thinking about him quite a bit over the last week or two. Let me explain.

I have always considered myself a serious runner; not a jogger. Most of my runs have a purpose. I do a warm up, I run, I do a warm down. Most of the time I know what I am doing and I am confident in my ability to coach myself. I may not always do the right thing as my ego sometimes gets in the way, but in the main I know what I am doing. And when I race, I run as hard as I can. I may languish in mid-pack mediocrity but I try hard and enjoy racing when my body allows. So in 2008 when I last did the London Marathon,while it was my first attempt at the distance and my build-up had not been perfect I felt confident enough that 3.15 would be well within my grasp. I got it horribly wrong. The wheels fell off, the wall was hit, whichever metaphor you want to use, and while I was hobbling, walking and barely jogging the last 7 miles, that was when the man dressed as a banana overtook me.

I cannot even begin to convey the depth of my despair when this bandy-legged bloke, dressed as a giant fruit went past me like I was standing still ( I *was* virtually standing still). Me, a serious runner and for many years a club runner being left for dead by a comedy fruit. It was compounded some minutes later when another man dressed as a cannibal, complete with a giant bone through his nose and rubber spear went past, swiftly followed by a celebrity chef. (Gordon Ramsay, if you're interested, although he detonated himself some 3 miles later and I was able to overtake him at a walk just before the line)

So , the man dressed as a giant banana is my motivation. I really don't want to be behind any comedy running fruit or vegetable in April. I don't think that I could handle it and therefore my running motivation is high and running has been going pretty well. I am back on track after the blip of my cold over Christmas. I am mixing it up with some speedwork and longer runs, although still only at 10-12 miles so not excessively long. This morning I had a good ride out with Simon and I ended up doing 42 miles including 4x10minutes tt efforts with a 3 minute recovery. Simon and I took it in turns to take the front. I was quite weak when the road kicked up which is something that no amount of turbo work can improve.

Onwards.