The Kilomathon, a medieval siege weapon

The shivers have stopped and the bruises have started to go that horrible yellow colour after last weekend's Beast 2010, so it's time to start looking forward to The Kilomathon!

I can't help but pronounce it as the KILOMATHON, in a bottom of your boots, Die Hard trailer kinda way. It sounds like a medieval siege weapon. "They've pulled up the drawbridge Sir. We'll never get in the castle now." "Don't despair Fortesque, bring out the KILOMATHONS!". In reality I'm expecting it to be a instrument of torture rather than a siege weapon.

So what is a Kilomathon? Well it's a marathon measured in km. That's 26.2km, or 16.2 miles in old money. It's run from the University of Nottingham in... Nottingham (surprise huh?!) to Alvaston Park in Derby. It's going to take in some lovely countryside, including Elvaston Park. And some not so lovely A roads. But hell, 26.2km of countryside may just kill me.

I've been training hard with long, boring road runs around the long, boring ring road near my house, culminating in 13.14miles last week. That's as far as I'm going to run in training, so I'm tapering down now with shorter, interval training and medium distance runs of 8-10 miles. Tapering down your runs a couple of weeks before a race means that your body gets a chance to recover from your training and lay down stores of energy in your muscles.

Recently I've been working more and more on my nutrition. This is going to be a surprise to anyone who knows me... my diet no longer consists entirely of McCoys crisps and cheese crackers. And one of the best things about prepping for a race is carbo-loading! I've been introduced to a new breakfast by the running machine Nimblerunner and have swapped takeaways and fish fingers for wholemeal pasta and rice. It's an interesting subject and one I may well get more into in the future. look out for a nutrition blog :o)

So there you go. The KILOMATHON... ("NOOOOO! We surrender!"). 10 days to go and I'll let you know my progress. If you're around on the 14 March, come along and cheer us all on - look out for 3217 and give me and Jim a bit of a cheer. He'll appreciate it. And don't forget why I'm doing this please.

Here's mud in your eye.