Burners go running

It would be fair to say that it has been a tough, mild, wet, stormy winter. For many Burners that changes nothing: pull on some waterproofs, fit some mudguards and hooray let’s cycle! However, for the softies amongst us we’ve found a nice alternative: running. Yup. Over to Lindsay to tell us more:

Hello, my name is Lindsay. Until very recently I bored my non-cycling pals with tales of derring do on the bike. They were getting a bit fed-up with that.

So guess what, I’ve found a new subject to torture them with. Training for the London Marathon, which at the time of writing is 62 days, 14 hours, two minutes and 26 seconds away.

In the past I was a pretty keen runner, completing a couple of marathons, and countless halfs, 10ks and Park Runs. But I feel out love with my trainers, when a few years back I was lured into doing a charity bike ride from Fort William to Glasgow. Shiny carbon bike and all the lycra a man in his 40s needed and I was set for 104 miles of headwind, hills and being sprayed with grit on the A82 by juggernauts. I loved it. And so began the buying of the fleet.

In those few years, I’ve progressed onto crit races, the odd dodgy time trial, mountain bike races and the thing I love most – cyclocross.

But recently a longing for just one more marathon inexplicably took an irrational hold of me, much to the horror of many of my cycling clan. I even dropped out of the last three cyclocross races of the season to dedicate Sundays to my long tortuous marathon runs.

In the past, I hated marathon training, and it’s fair to say that I never really adhered to my plan. Result, poor training equals disappointing times, always tantalisingly close, but just over the four hour mark. I could always knock out a 42ish minute 10k, a decent 1.30ish half and a Park Run 5k just over the 20 minute mark.

But now at the tender age of 46-and-a-quarter, and thanks to my late onset cycling mania, I am fitter, leaner and more competitive than I’ve ever been. AKA, I’m a classic mamil. I was finally ready to get with the marathon programme big time. Just ask JP, Chris, Jo, Scott, Pete or any of my Burners family, and they’ll tell you I’m a 24 carat marathon bore.

Just to add to the spice my wife Kat is also pulling her gutties (bought in New York City no less) to pound the streets of London in the greatest marathon on earth. Mind you, for legal and sanity reasons we are both training separately and plan on running as far away from each other as possible!

I’m in week three of my training programme, clocking up 35 odd miles every week between the long Sunday runs, marathon pace 10ks, hill rep sessions and recovery runs. It’s not easy to do that and work, and help chase after our three boys. And of course get a Burners ride in every now and then.

But I’m loving every minute of it. From grinding out a 16 miler round Eglinton Park and Irvine in the rain, to a glorious run under clear blue skies from Prestwick to Culzean, I feel I’m on course to finally break that four-hour barrier. In fact I’m training for a goal of three hours thirty [The pressure is on now Lindsay! Ed]. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve even had to apologise to my Strava friends for posting a run home in the rain from the pub last Friday night after a few pints and a whisky or two with my mate Jonny. That’s definitely not included on the programme. Mind you I set a decent, if a bit wobbly mile-and-a-half in a respectable 12.44. I can hear you all yawning!

Oh, and did I mention that I’ve entered the Scottish Duathlon Championships in Stirling between now and the London Marathon. N+1 springs to mind as a decent assault on that might just require a TT bike for the fleet!

So, I’m off for a recovery shake or two, a quick squint at my running mag, before trying to get in a restful eight or nine hours sleep.

Right, just 62 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes and 44 seconds till the gun goes and Kat and I line up with 36,000 other runners in London to take on the legendary 26.2 miler.

Kat and Lindsay’s is fundraising for Bloodwise to provide support to improve blood cancer patients’ lives. https://www.justgiving.com/Kat-Lindsay/

Good luck to Lindsay and Kat!  If the thought of training (or not training) for a marathon doesn’t take your fancy, but you still want the simple joy of leaving the house without the hunt for the tyre levers you’ve lost and just a pair of trainers then we highly recommend a visit to Ayr parkrun – this takes place most Saturday’s at Rozelle starting 09:30.  

Of course though, regardless of the weather, you’ll be most welcome on our social Saturday rides starting at the Burns Centre, Alloway.