VLM 2010 – operation dancing badger begins

I may have to change the codename...

Today, the first step of the long road to Greenwich Park on 25 April 2010 to run the London Marathon has been taken.

After 27 calls in two days, I eventually got through to the physio, and now have my first appointment to sort the ITB problems that ruled me out of 2009's London Marathon, only 12 days before the start.

As I sent my withdrawal in before the required date, I should be getting my deferred entry form for next years race by the end of May (or I have to return it by then – must check that...).

In the meantime, it's time to get plotting to make sure that:

1. I get to the start line in one piece, and
2. I can run 26.2 miles around London as well as I can.

The first of these is born from the frustration of this years attempt – hundreds of miles of running over cold winter months, without even getting to the start line.

To say I was irked, is something of an understatement.

The second is a repeat of the goal I had for 2009, after my one and only marathon attempt in 2008 saw me jog-hobbling the last 9 miles.

Oddly, that affected my time somewhat.

So, whilst I get my legs sorted, it's full on plotting mode here at PRL towers.

I'm currently working on a three-pronged strategy to keep me from getting into too much trouble.

Roughly speaking, this involves:

1. getting leg sorted and keep it working.
2. Improve fitness and running ability by training for almost a year.
3. sort out this blog, mainly because it's now over 250 posts long, has become a bit unruly and I've been dying to do it for a while but haven't been bothered.

As I can't actually run at the moment, the next few weeks are mainly going to be all about 1 and 3, but with a healthy dose of plotting 2.

At the minute I'm thinking finding a half marathon for around October time, as an intermediate goal. If I can get running in the next month, I've got about four months to get to a decent base level of running again, before a good six month prep for 2010.

That isn't to say I'll be running at anything like the same intensity as I had been for 2009. My aim is to increase my 'normal mileage' (ie from 0 miles to some miles), so when I start the actual marathon training, I'll have a solid base on which to build.

Will probably need to litter this all with the odd 10k etc to keep things interesting, but that's the outline so far.

Only 362 days to go!

Now, I really must think of a new codename...