Going to Milan

To go, or not to go: this is the question!

Well, eventually I made up my mind and I’m going to meet Giulio and Giacomo in Milan. I hope I’ll be wise enough to stop if I feel something hurting, though I’ve never abandoned during any race and it could sound hard. Giacomo will try his PB on 2h45 pace, I’ll try hard to help him, while Giulio is injured and will be there just for some good wine. I’ve just spoken to them, Giacomo sounded relaxed enough to do a good race.

Yes, my left leg is still hurting, but not too much. It’s been almost 2 weeks by now, I’ve not done any strong workout since the last race. I really hope this Milan Marathon weekend will go nice and smooth, and possibly from Monday I’ll be able to start again with some good training.

This is just a hope… so let’s hope!

I’d better haven’t started yet

When I decided that my first day of training for the marathon had to be the past Sunday, I could hardly imagine it would have been such a pain in the ass! The purpose of this blog didn’t have to be “describe my injuries”!! Left leg is still hurting and I’m starting to have some doubt about taking part to Milan Marathon on 2.12. I’d love to, since I have to join Giacomo in his PB attempt, and I’ve also paid the fee, but no love and no fee can overcome my health!

I do really hope to post some training schedules, when I’ll finally decide them. For the moment it would still be nonsense and trying to stick to a workout plan could make me worse!

We’ll see what happens this weekend, with no work and more time to, hopefully, relax.

Bad luck is in the air

Situation isn’t getting better so far. After Sunday my left thigh has gone on hurting and is still preventing me from doing anything serious.

I’ve been running easily and steadily for the past 3 days, hoping to heal, but no good news is yet on the horizon.

Also, since Monday I’ve started my new job, which is cool and makes me enthusiastic, but steals a lot of time from my training schedules. When I’ll be better (soon?!?), I’ll have to be very accurate at planning my workouts and sticking to them. Hopefully I’ll convince some of my old training mates to do something with me at lunchtimes, otherwise, on my own, I won’t get too far at all.

My first italian half marathon

The blog starts from today. And right today, after about 1 week from my journey back to Italy, I had my first race. The Palmanova half marathon. Quite an important one in my region, but I failed any expectations. Unfortunately I was still suffering from a slight groin injury and the pain got stronger mile after mile, which forced me to slow down a lot. So, after the first “half-half-marathon”:) my chrono was quite a decent one: 36 mins, against the 40 mins for the second. For the record, the winner was a slovenian with 1h07′

The position was 40th, but believe me, for now this has no relevance to me at all. I’m just scared, and keen to recover from this injury ASAP. Possibly before the 2/12 marathon, in 2 weeks!

This blog

Following on the experience of Carol’s blog, I eventually decided to hold a blog about my Marathon’s ambitions.

I’ve been running for a year in Cambridge from Nov’06 to Nov’07, without many outstanding results, but I can consider this year as a long and gradual recovery from my neverending injuries. My last and only marathon took place in Milan, right 3 years ago. Awesome result: 2h32′20″. In order to achieve that, I did actually train a lot, and I will need to train a lot to reach such a standard again.

This is the purpose of this blog. I’ll write here a diary, accurate more or less, of what’s happening in the 21 weeks before the London Marathon 2008: 18 November 2007 – 13 April 2008. This is quite a lot, yes, and I’m quite sure I can manage to improve and get close to the 2h32′ if I focus on training.

Finally, why London 2008? London because it’s certainly one of the best and fastest courses in the world. And particularly the 2008 edition, since I’ll be able to run it as an english athlete, having been living for a year and having earned the qualifying standard for a championship entry.

Stay tuned!