Uphill struggle

It's two weeks to go until the Manhattan half marathon and time for the longest training run - 12 miles.

I think it's safe to say I have learnt the hard way that eating your own body weight in scones and biscuits, followed by 3 champagne cocktails, is not the ideal prep for a 12 mile training run. Yesterday I went out for a champagne afternoon tea with two fabulous friends and ended up having two too many additional glasses of bubbly.

The alcohol itself probably wouldn't have been so bad but for the fact that you're essentially eating on an empty stomach. I don't think any sports nutritionist would classify a cherry bakewell and a macaroon as carb loading. But I managed to make it out today for the full distance.

The late winter weather helped. Cold, with a biting wind, but sunny as a July day - it was the perfect long distance weather. I just really need to plan my routes better and not include quite so many hills on a hangover.

It's true that I have not been devoted to my training for this early season half. Work and house selling/house buying has not left me with much free time during the week, so I've been squeezing short easy runs in wherever possible. I've not managed any intervals or speedwork, nor have I crosstrained (unless you count walking or permanently cleaning and tidying the flat ready for prospective buyers). But I have, bar one week when my ribs hurt too much, been religious about doing the long runs at a weekend. I've been pinning all my hopes on the endurance rather than the speed and I'm just hoping now that I don't achieve a personal worst on 21 March.

On the plus side, Manhattan is not going to throw any hills at me. Today, on the other hand, I managed to inlude 4 hills, 3 of which were long and steep. I never learn. I'm going to start factoring local gradient onto my wish list for househunting in the next few weeks, because I'm getting too old for all these hill climbs.

So fingers crossed for a flat course and a kind wind in a fortnight, and I might just make it round in a reasonable, if not record-breaking time.

LON