The Qwer Old Fella's Marathon Method

9:00 a.m. 8 miles easy. Nice easy run in the soft morning rain.

Now I'm off to Killarney with the family to traipse around Ross Castle and pootle in the national park. The joys of being shackled to a history boffin...

6:00 p.m. 6 miles easy. Was going to do 8 miles with 8x8 hill blasts but was shattered after our day out.

The day out was superb. Went on a boat trip on the lakes and the weather was brilliant. Mountains, clean air and susnshine. Topnotch. Lots of tourists having a great time:)

Woke up this morning with GI issues and decided not to run  - to run when you have the runs is dangerous. Thought I'd wait until tonight when 'things' had settled and then go out. But my GI issues have developed into something else. I now have a fever and feel pretty sick.

So, off to bed with Bam.

Through the night, my highly conditioned body battled the badness and the fever broke in the early hours - many mortals would've been hospitalized:)

Although the stomach's gurgling away like a wachine machine and I feel a bit weak and queasy, I'm on the mend. I think I'll wait until tomorrow before heading out - just to be safe.

10:00 a.m. 6 miles with 8 rather ropy pick-ups.

The bubonic plague, which hit me on Monday, has cleared and I feel fine and dan-day. So, when I set out this morning I planned to do 6 pick-ups and 2-3 miles at mp to loosen the legs. The best laid schemes of mice and men and all that flummery.

The plague lingers. Felt awful during the pick-ups and it took 200m plus to recover from my pathetic attempts at zipping across the ground like a gazelle. I felt more like a lame hippo - just as well Russ wasn't about: he'd have shot me, stuffed me and displayed me in his trophy cabinet:)

I'm hoping a 4-5 mile shakeout tonight might sort things out. Good news is that the stomach's settled.

10:30 a.m. 6 miles easy. Ran on tomorrow night's 5k course to check it out. A few pulls but nothing serious.

Opted not to run last night as I felt light-headed. I thought the rest would do the trick. But this morning I'm still not 100%.

That said, I'm going to run tomorrow night. I want to fill in one of those cheeky little red-top race reports. I'm more excited about doing a race report than doing the race.

All things being equal and that this bubonic plague hasn't taken too much out of me, I've set three goals. I'll state my goals so that tomorrow night, when my legs and lungs are on fire, I'll know that I have to account for my performance.

Based on my most recent 4x1 mile session (AP 5:24; a good KPI) the best I can expect to run is somewhere between 16:50-17:00. I'm treating this illness thing as though it's a taper. Hopefully it'll work that way and I'll feel refreshed etc.

My 'B' goal is 17 - 17:20 (around 5:30 pace). My 'C' goal is 17:20-17:34, which I should be able to manage, as I do my 4 mile threshold runs at 5:40 pace (17:45ish pace).

Although 16:50 -17:45 isn't exactly staggering, something in that range will give me a benchmark to work off when I start training properly from Sunday onwards.

Whatever happens, I'll have a PR...

10:00 a.m. 8 miles recovery run. Legs didn't feel too bad and I think I've finally got rid of the lurgy. Things should get back to normal from tomorrow...

6:00 p.m. 6 slow miles. Very tired.