Deciding on a medium term goal

A few unfortunate events have conspired to thwart my plans to get fit enough to race a marathon in 2012.  The most disruptive event was a bizarre accident in which I fell awkwardly while leaping onto a moving narrow boat as it exited a lock on the Trent Mersey canal, earlier this year.    I gashed my leg on the steel hull of the boat, doing quite a lot of damage to skin and muscle.   I subsequently fell into the canal.   Exposure of a lot of torn tissues to dirty canal water led to a troublesome infection that slowed the healing process.  Various other things have delayed my return to running, and I am now facing what is likely to be a slow process of recovering my fitness.   Although the most immediate problem is the deterioration in cardiovascular fitness, the more serious problem is loss of muscle strength.    Beyond age 65 the fall of in levels of growth hormone and anabolic steroids becomes very apparent, and re-building muscle is a major challenge.   At present I am building up the training load cautiously so as to ensure that my connective tissues are adequately conditioned.   I have not yet decided on any definite medium term goals, though I am inclined to set a target for a reasonably fast 5K as the first serious objective.  But at this stage I have very little idea what ‘reasonably fast’ might mean.  Right now, I doubt that I could break 25 minutes.  I am inclined to make that the first target.

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