yassooo

God help me, the Melbourne Marathon is less than two weeks away. It doesn’t bear thinking about, really.

After an ill-timed bout of unwellness, my sad excuse for a sub-conscious mind (SCM) has spent the past week fatally undermining my progress with a series of delusions centring around classical music, phantom ailments and the conviction I couldn’t even run to catch the bus.

Thankfully the old SCM is currently ditching what was the most god-awful funk of all time and is pulling itself into mid-season form. Now, I’m tentatively imagining myself attached loosely to the back-side of the 3 hour “bus”.

Who knows?

Team Samsung
Thanks to Clarkey, I’ve hitched up with the Team Samsung folks, who very kindly paid my registration fee on the condition I wear Samsung regalia from head to toe. That’s all well and good. I have no problems selling myself out to the corporate dollar. Heck, I would tattoo Samsung across my forehead if it got me a free pair of shoes.

It hasn’t come to that though: yet. There’s no truth to the rumour I’ve changed my first-born son’s name to “Samsung” (although, I’ve heard worse).

The only thing that concerns me is that the official pacers will also be wearing Samsung gear. I’d hate to think there will be people who attach themselves to MY coat-tails, hoping for a nice steady pace. God help you if you do: you’re in for an interesting run.

Yasso
If you know what “Yasso” means, you probably also know most people think they’re a bit dodgy. (For those of you in the dark, Yasso 800’s are a form of training, where you run a series of 800 metre intervals at pace; it’s meant to be a predictor of your marathon time).

I know most people think they’re as dodgy as Shane Warne’s marital vows but, much like Simone Warne and every second barmaid in the UK, I’m going to do it anyway. Physically, I need a training run this Sunday of around 16k; mentally I need something that will prove I can run fast. Yassos fit the bill.

They worked for Clarkey, and he’s never wrong.

Running
Just after I filed my last epistle, I headed out for a dose of fartleking. In this case, it took me around Princess Park a couple of times and back to the office. Is there much point doing strenuous speed work at this point? Probably not, but it’s good to do a bit of a tune-up, particularly when you have a pesky SCM to keep a lid on.

12.something km at a pinch over 4 minute ks.