2:56:22

Two weeks have passed now since the race and, although I think most of you know how it went, I figure I probably owe the blog a bit of closure.

My official time was 2:56:22 and I am really happy with that – particularly because I went through halfway in 1:29:11, giving me a 2nd half of 1:27:11 and a negative split of exactly 2mins. So I’m not just happy with the finish time but, perhaps more importantly, I’m proud of how I ran it. It takes a lot of commitment (I was going to say ‘confidence’ but I wasn’t all that confident on the start line) to go out planning to speed-up in the second half. But if you’ve been honest with yourself about your training and your target-time expectations, there’s no reason that you can’t feel strong in the late stages of a marathon. And when it comes together right, it is the most satisfying way to execute the race as you literally stream past other tired runners on your way to the finish. I think I read a statistic once, based on the London Marathon field, that only about 3% of marathon finishers record a negative split; so it is genuinely hard to do, particularly if you are still attempting to run close to your limits.

RACE REPORT

Anyway, so the race itself. The first thing I remember about race morning was checking the weather outside and seeing the trees by the hotel being buffeted about by pretty strong winds. Even though it had been perfectly still when we were wandering around the city centre the day before. Typical. I think that set my mood for pre-race and my brother, Darren (who was also running) and Lyndsey would probably both attest to the fact that I was a moody bastard on the walk to the metro station. 

It really was windy and cold out there and I just couldn't get it out of my head that it was going to make the run much more difficult. Still, the walk to the stadium, converging with all the other runners, did lift my spirits and I was buzzed and looking forward to it again as Darren and Me got race ready and off-loaded final bits of race kit before going through the runners entrance into the stadium. Inside, in the middle of the track, we went into our separate starting pens and I started to do whatever kind of warm-up I could in the limited space. Had a quick chat with Harry over the fence to the sub 2:40 pen where he was. He was in high spirits, and his pre-race pep talk for me basically involved calling me a pleb for being in pen 2. He did also remind me that the weather is what it is, and that it was time to get this done. So the minutes passed, we all edged forward in our pens and a klaxon set us on our way.

Even with the 150 metres of track to start and getting out of the stadium I was pleased with how much space there was pretty much straight away and I settled into an average pace just under 6:50 min/mile nice and comfortably. I'd decided for this run to only check my split time every 5k, and was just watching my average pace within each 5k to avoid me reacting to every little pace fluctuation. It also basically broke the race into just 8 bits (+ the final 2.2km), rather than 26 (miles) or 42 (km) which was mentally easier to handle. So, along the wide boulevards of the city centre, through Vondelspark, and the first 5k clicked by in 21:23. Bang on sub-3 pace and it felt easy. Saw the WAGs at 6km (Lyndsey and Emily), think I managed to look reasonably cheerful and carried on, feeling good.Working through the second 5k the pace was drifting down closer to 6:40mm and I was consciously easing off a lot to make sure I didn't get carried away with others around me. We completed the first mini 8km loop of the city and then set off east towards the River Amstel where we'd get properly into the long loop of the marathon course. Still consciously holding back as we went through 10km, I was well pleased to see the watch register 20:50. Picking up time already, quarter distance, and it was still feeling super easy!

We turned right (south) and, after a short out-and-back section along a straight road we were joining the towpath of the River Amstel where we would head South for 8km before crossing over, go through halfway, then 7-8km back up the river. This was the most open part of the course and the wind was immediately more noticeable as it whipped straight across us. It all still felt really manageable, but I wasn't naturally speeding up anymore. 15km went by with a split of 20:54 and I was having to concentrate a little more now to hold the pace which was averaging just under 6:40mm now. I just told myself to carry on working, down to the turning point, and not think about what it was gonna feel like coming back up the river (I was presuming more difficult!). As we approached 20km, and the bridge, I knew that the building feeling of needing to stop for a wee was only going to get worse and wasn't helping my temperament, so I made a quick stop in the bushes then got back in the flow of runners and went through the fourth 5km in 21:22. Ok, not a disaster, still comfortably sub-3, lets get over this bridge and see what the other side is like...

Now heading North again, back towards the city, I was immediately thinking, 'actually, the wind's not that much different'. It was helped by the fact that I found myself tucked on the back of a group of about ten guys now, ticking along at the right pace, and enjoying the windshield they provided. We passed under halfway in 1:29:11 and I was feeling really strong. In many ways, this was the pivotal point of the race for me. I figured these guys were going to run 2:58/2:59, but I also knew I really wanted more than that. I was getting itchy feet - so when a guy who looked pretty competent (I don't know before you ask; he was skinny and had nice running kit?) cruised past the group looking very comfortable, I moved out and tagged on with him. Moving faster now, we two ran together passing people consistently for the length of the river. My watch had settled down at 6:34mm for this section, but it felt right so I just stuck in and decided I would reassess at 25km. We literally must have passed 50-100 people along that stretch, it was a great feeling and 25km went by with a split of 20:30! At a drinks station back in the city now, I dropped my new buddy and he didn't reappear so I just carried on at that pace. I kept looking at the garmin expecting to see that I'd slowed, but the pace remained in the low 6:30s and now I was through 30km in 20:32! By now, I pretty much knew it was my day and it was just about holding it together. Going through a pretty bland industrial area the pace did start to feel a bit harder at times but I knew if I could get to the north-east corner of the course (around 34km), then we would pretty much have a tailwind the whole way back as we traveled west through the city.

I made it, we turned left and it literally did start to feel like the home straight as we were now wind assisted. I had slowed a little through 35km, with a split of 20:37, but I knew I just had to dig in from here. I was still overtaking people, although we were very strung out now, and even the undulations of a big road underpass didn't cause me too much trouble. The Vondelspark seemed to take a lot longer to get through this time, but it included going under the 40km barrier (20:52) so I didn't care. I was tightening up and slowing in the final 2.2km but I just concentrated on going quick enough (about 6:50mm) and the stadium loomed into view mercifully quickly. The crowds were back now, past the 500m to go sign and finally back into the stadium. As I turned onto the track Harry was already there giving me a good shouting at and I sped up - for about 4 strides! I was completely done-in, but it didn't matter because I was literally on the track approaching the finish gantry. Over the line, stop the watch and the relief and fatigue consumed me all at once. I stood still, hands on my knees, literally unable to walk. A well-intentioned dutch guy took me by the arm and got me moving, I assured him I was ok and shuffled off to meet Harry. It was smiles all the way from there. He'd run a massive PB of 2:37 and it started to sink in just how well it had all gone, for both of us. My brother crossed the line a little while later in 3:23, a PB by 23mins (!) so it really had been an epic result for all of us.

Ok, enough of me going on already. I hope some of you enjoyed following my marathon build-ups this year on the blog. I've enjoyed writing it, it's certainly kept me honest and I'm coming away from it with a new PB that I am well pleased with. Time for a break from marathon running now (for at least 2yrs is the current plan) and I'm gonna try something a bit different; training specifically to try and improve my 5km time. The change in focus should be refreshing and should teach me some new things about how to train, and what I can achieve...

The blog will be back at some point. Hopefully when I'm a bit faster... : )

It's time...

Ok, so it's Friday, bag packed, off to the airport tonight and I'm really looking forward to it now. Final week of training went great, 50 miles done and the final weekend of running was particularly good. On Saturday I went up to Norwich parkrun (as we were back visiting the folks in Suffolk) and ran 17:40 for 2nd place. Not quite as quick as my pre-London 17:23 but a good indicator all the same. Then Sunday was a final medium-long run run of 12 miles. I didn't expect much from it as I was slightly hungover from a wedding reception the night before, so I decided to not look at the watch and just push-on with it. I knew I was pushing harder than I should have been but I felt good so stuck with it; Darren, if you're reading this, do as I say not as I do right : ) . Still, I was genuinely surprised when I checked the garmin at the end to see I averaged 6:29mm pace! Well pleased with that as it didn't feel brutal, I would have guessed I was going 20secs slower. It was really the confidence booster I needed that something good might be in there.

This week has been pretty light, just a steady run on Monday, 4x 1 mile on Tues (sub 6-min pace felt comfortable) and a steady 4 miles yesterday on the treadmill, just to turn the legs over. I've been making sure I'm getting enough sleep, eating cleanly and on the scales this morning I think I'm the lightest I've ever been pre-marathon (69.2kg). I feel ready, as ready as I'm going to be anyway.

There's been no talk of target times in this blog, I'm aware. And that's been intentional. London certainly knocked my confidence. I'm still pleased I put it all out there and went for the low 2:5*, but I don't think I can justify doing it again (whether I am, or am not in that shape) when my PB is still 2 years old and could be revised with a much more conservative run than that. So being conservative will officially be the plan. I'd happily take another sub-3 of any sort (as although I've spent a lot of time trying to run them, I still only have one to my name), but equally I'm also prepared for it to go completely wrong. Because with the marathon, it's just so long that there's always a risk it might. And I feel better being on-board with that from the start.

It seems likely there will be some sort of race-day tracking on the marathon website so my bib number is 576 if any of you want to see how I'm getting on. Race starts at 9:30am (8:30am UK time) on Sunday...

Weeks 8, 9, 10 of 12 - (17th Sept > 7th Oct)

WEEK 8
Mon - REST
Tue - 3 miles easy (7:54mm)
Wed - AM 5.4 miles easy (7:47mm) // PM 10 miles inc 6 x 2km @ 5:57mm av. (2min rests)
Thu - 11.5 miles easy (7:22mm)
Fri - 4 miles easy (8:04mm)
Sat - 5 miles easy inc. Bushy parkrun in 21:46
Sun - New Forest Marathon - 3:09:06 (7:12mm) 18th / 577 finishers
TOTAL MILEAGE = 65.2

WEEK 9
Mon - REST
Tue - 5.2 miles easy
Wed - REST
Thu - 3.1 miles easy (8:12mm)
Fri - REST
Sat - Battersea Park 10km DNF (5km in 18:02; miles 5:40, 5:44, 5:57)
Sun - 11 miles including 2x 20mins tempo @ 6:26mm & 6:21mm
TOTAL MILEAGE = 30.8

WEEK 10
Mon - 1 mile (9:30)
Tue - Track 1700, 1400, 1100, 800, 500 (3min rests) - Reps @ 5:41 > 4:54mm
Wed - 7 miles easy (7:40mm)
Thu - Track 15 x 750m in 2:46 (3min rests) - Reps @ 5:57mm
Fri - 6 miles steady (7:10mm)
Sat - 4 miles inc. 2mile tempo in 11:25
Sun - 16 miles (7:08mm)
TOTAL MILEAGE = 47.4

"It's been a long road, you should write the blog. Its not all about the triumphs but also the hardship. I think if you write it down you will feel better..."

Harry Johnston - 5km (16:14) and 100km (7:51:21) runner, & training buddy.

I have been literally inundated with 3 or 4 emails from you lot asking where the blog is so thought it about time I brought you all up to date. In truth, I guess I haven't got round to writing it because the last couple of weeks haven't gone great and it feels harder to lay it all out when that's the case. Still I've had a well-received pep talk or two (including the one from Harry, above) and it is important to roll with the punches, so here it is.

Week 8, leading up to the New Forest Marathon, was much like the ones that preceded it. Pretty high mileage, one good big reps session and a bit of a lighter end to the week than usual as a half-hearted taper for NF. In truth, I don't think that made much difference. Running steady around Bushy parkrun on the Saturday morning my legs still felt tired and achey from the recent mileage so I was stuck with taking that into Sunday's 26 miler.

The weather forecast for that Sunday was awful, persistent heavy rain with gusty winds. It also turned out to be accurate. I actually felt fine in the early miles, apart from being cold and wet (running in a vest probably wasn't the best idea) and I easily settled into averaging 7:10 min/mile pace. I was only monitoring the pace in 5mile segments on the watch and as I got into the second 5 miles I picked up the pace a bit. But in doing so my quads really started to tighten and knot up. I could run still and had plenty of energy but my quads were just uncomfortable. That really set the scene for the rest of the run. I did away with ideas of speeding up as I was worried that my legs might seize completely and just concentrated instead on holding that pace. I got to around 16 miles still feeling ok-ish but the end of the run from there was pretty unpleasant, the cold and rain had really permeated into me by then. Passing lots of people in the last few miles, as they slowed and I didn't, helped get me through it but mostly I just wanted it to be over. As soon as I crossed the line and stopped running I was shivering badly and Lyndsey (faithfully waiting with gels and drinks on the course in that terrible weather, what a wife!) later said my lips were blue. It certainly felt like that. Thankfully I managed to get a hot shower straight after and started to feel normal again, the only lasting feeling being a deep stiffness in my quads. The time of 3:09:06 was definitely a good result but in hindsight I think I probably dug too deep to run it.

That was certainly reflected in the following week's running, of which there was very little! For the first few days I couldn't do much at all as my legs just felt thoroughly dead and the feeling in my quads verged on pain rather than an ache so I tried to be patient. Of course, us runners aren't naturally the most patient of creatures, especially when we're not running. And so by Saturday morning I'd convinced myself that I must be fully recovered and fresh and I headed off to the Battersea Park 10k fully expecting to PB. I kid you not, that was the thought process in my head. I guess I wasn't that surprised when I walked off the course after just 5km having faded badly and proved to myself I was still far from fresh. I punished myself through an 11 mile tempo session on the Sunday just to check that Saturday's experience hadn't been an one-off. It hadn't been, Sunday's run was just plain shite as I struggled in the 20 minute efforts to hit a pace that was my half marathon PB pace over three years ago. And so, I started week 10 feeling very deflated.

Monday was no better. I drove over to join my club mates for a running technique session which we've recently started but even just attempting to jog in the warm-up felt ludicrously hard. One mile covered in 9:30 and I knew it was time to get back in the car and draw a line under this one before I'd even got started. That was probably when I started to get a bit panicky, wondering if the legs were ever going to come back to life and whether running NF as a 'training run' had indeed turned out to be the suicide move that I thought it might be. But as is so often the case, that was also probably the turning point - or at least the start of it. Tuesday came and I decided to take an all or nothing approach to the track session that was scheduled. Warm-up felt better and, whilst I was having to dig very deep still, the numbers were coming out as they should be; covering the final 500 metre rep in 91 secs showed me there probably wasn't a lot wrong with me still other than some residual fatigue. I conscientiously took a 10-minute ice bath before bed (no actual ice, just cold water, but severe enough!) and slept in my 2XUs that night. Anything I could think of to keep the recovery rolling on.

As this week has progressed the legs have indeed continued to improve. By Thursday's track session I could really feel some zip coming back into them and running was much more enjoyable again. Yesterday morning I tried a really short, sharp 2 mile tempo session along Eastbourne promenade and it actually felt great to be pushing hard with a tailwind in the second mile to close out with a 5:33 mile. And today's long run...well it certainly didn't feel great, but it wasn't terrible either; and that last long run is never the positive affirmation of marathon-readiness that we'd like it to be! Key thing is, I feel normal again. The only question that lingers in my head is, 'what have I lost from having that forced cutback of 10 days or so with little/no quality running?'. The answer probably, is 'very little'. The official postmortem is, rather than trying to string together endless weeks of 60-70 miles and effectively running myself into the ground, I should have proactively scheduled in a lower volume week or two. Lesson learnt. Maybe : )

And so here I am, officially at the start of the taper. With 14 days to go I probably can't make myself much more, or less, fit so it's about being sensible and just keeping up the running.  If you've read this far, nice work, and be reassured that I am feeling fairly positive again. I don't have the very fast long runs in the bank that I'd done pre-London but maybe I'll be less burnt-out on the start line for that very reason. Hopefully, there's still a good result to be had from marathon number eight in Amsterdam.

Mileage so far: 46, 57, 60, 64, 70, 73, 70, 65, 31, 48

Week 7 of 12 (10th>16th September)

WEEK 7
Mon - REST
Tue - AM 5 miles easy (7:19mm) // PM 5 miles easy (7:27mm)
Wed - 12 miles inc 3 x 7mins @ 6:01mm + 4.5 miles @ 6:26mm
Thu - 7.47 miles (7:42mm)
Fri - 15.92 miles inc 5x 2 mile in average 12:19 (6:10mm) / 2 min rests
Sat - 3 miles easy (8:16mm)
Sun - 21 miles (7:06mm) + 1 mile jog w/d

TOTAL MILEAGE = 70.4 miles

"Around midnight you would find Ron Hill, winner of so many marathons, downing a large port and giving his verdict.'I hate the marathon,' he would say, 'a lot of hard work and not much glory. I've always hated it and that's the truth. All that effort, all that suffering, I must have been mad, bloody mad.'"

Excerpt from John Bryant's book: The London Marathon - the History of the Greatest Race On Earth.

(Ron Hill - second man ever to break 2:10 and nowadays well known for maintaining a 'streak' of going running every day since 1964. He's currently 73yrs old)

The start of this week felt pretty disastrous. I was so tired still, even after the rest day on Monday. Tuesday's second run was supposed to be a reps session but I binned it before even finishing the first rep as I was way off pace and just felt empty. At this point I had a sit down on a kerb for about 10 minutes (very melodramatic) while I pondered the rest of the week. This was the low point. I shuffled the 2 miles home and Lyndsey and me went to the pub for dinner which was a really welcome distraction from thinking about it all.

What a difference a day can make and from Wednesday onwards I gradually felt better and that came through in the running. Starting the 7 minute reps on Wednesday I reminded myself not to worry about pace as I was running it round my usual, fairly hilly, 12 mile loop. That took some pressure off and I was still working plenty hard in the final rep that only came out at 6:09 pace, but did include about 4 mins uphill to finish! The tempo warm-down was quicker than the same session a couple of weeks ago so that was pretty pleasing too. 

Run of the week though goes to Friday evening's 5x 2 mile monster session. This was actually one on Harry's training plan so I was really there to be company for him, but I also knew that the target of 6:20mm for the reps (whilst only moderate intensity for him) would be a big valuable session for me if we nailed it. Well we did that and more. First rep was done in 12:36 (6:18mm) and they just got quicker from there with me just about hanging-on for an 11:52 final rep (5:56mm). I'm now way more familiar with the 2 mile stretch of towpath around Hampton Court than I care to be but it's definitely a great session to have ticked off.

With that session totaling almost 16 miles and today's long run, it actually hasn't felt too difficult to get to 70 miles again (yeah I know, not much of a cut-back week!). This is turning into a really solid block of volume and whilst originally I definitely harbored ambitions of getting into 80+ weeks, I'm not sure there's any point now - it would only be to please my ego and if I can carry on at the level I am it's still good volume and seems to let me get some good quality running done with it too.

So, first build-up 'race' (mustn't race it, mustn't race it...) of this campaign next weekend, the New Forest Marathon. Obviously, more to be lost than to be gained from running this too hard. The key aim is just to get a strong full-distance training run in. If I can finish in something like 3:10-3:20 then that would be a good confidence booster and hopefully shouldn't put me out of action too long; apparently it's a bit hilly though, so we'll just have to see.

In other news, Chris Thompson's 61:00 for 5th place in the Great North Run this morning is hopefully great news for the future of British marathoning. He looked shabby running just over 29 minutes in the Olympic 10K but it turns out he was carrying an injury. This was a monstrous run today though that shouldn't be overlooked. When/if him and Farah do decide to step-up to full marathon we could realistically have a couple of names to cheer in the men's elite field.

Mileage so far: 46, 57, 60, 64, 70, 73, 70

Weeks 5 & 6 of 12 - (27th Aug > 9th Sept)

(some detail missing, I've had to remember everything because runningahead.com is down!)

WEEK 5
Mon - REST
Tue - REST
Wed -  12 miles inc 3 x 7mins @ 5:42mm + 5M warm-down @ 6:45mm 
Thu - AM 9 miles // PM 5 miles
Fri - 9 miles treadmill inc 4x 2km in 6:58 (5:37mm)
Sat - 9M easy
Sun - 24.86 miles (40km) average 7:15mm

TOTAL MILEAGE = 70.7 miles


WEEK 6
Mon - REST
Tue - AM 7.5 miles easy // PM 5.5 miles easy
Wed - AM 8 miles easy // PM 4 miles easy
Thu - 12.5 miles inc. 10M in 62:29 (6:15mm)
Fri - 4.2 miles easy
Sat - 14 miles easy (7:51mm)
Sun - AM River Relay Stage 5 - 5.21 miles @ 6:01mm // PM 10.55 miles inc last 4M @ 6:12mm

TOTAL MILEAGE = 73.0 miles

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed"

Michael Jordan - NBA Legend

What's that I hear you all cry in excited unison? Show us the mileage graph again? Oh alright then.

Some numbers (isn't this fun so far):

• 8x weeks in a row of increasing mileage.
• This is the first time I've ever strung together 2x 70+ weeks in a row. It was hard.
• At one point this last week, I'd done 84 miles in the last 7 days (I've never done an 80+ week; and still haven't 'officially' as that would have to be Mon-Sun to count. Marvel at the weird, illogical rules I've developed for these things. The aforementioned is therefore a 7-day-rolling record)
• 9 days into September and I've already run 106 miles. That potentially sets me up for a 300+ month, which I've also never done.

Of course that would assume I can reasonably hope to keep up the same volume of running for the next 3 weeks and I'm not sure I can. At times it's been really tough to keep getting out there. A fair few 5.30-6am starts to get morning runs in and some of those have just felt like shuffling. You can't expect every run to feel good when you're trying to get in a phase of higher mileage, but still it's tough sometimes keeping the faith that it will pay off. Fitting it all in with work and life whilst still getting enough sleep and avoiding divorce through wife neglect is also getting tricky. Anyway, a lighter week is probably called for now to get some spring back into my stride.

QUALITY SESSIONS
The key one I guess was this week's 10-mile tempo run. This was on very tired legs so it was a good effort, basically an identical time to a run I did about 5 weeks out from London. And at the end of that week in March, I managed 20 miles at sub-6:30 pace in the Cranleigh 21; so if it loosely means I'm in that shape again, then I'm happy. The 40km long run is also worth a mention. At nearly 25 miles it's a long way and therefore a big confidence booster that it went well. I actually set it as 8x 5km splits in my Garmin and managed to run all of them progressively quicker, starting at 7:50mm and ending up just under 6:50mm.

SKINNY-ING UP
A phrase coined by a random guy in our work gym when we were talking about spin classes, as in "yeah, it's good to help you skinny-up for holiday too". Quite. Anyway, it amuses me so let's go with. Turns out running this much and giving up beer (yes, still dry, even though Saturday was my birthday) is also a good way of getting down to race weight. I can see my cheek bones a bit more and I'm getting a bit thinner. I just need my parents to tell me I'm getting too thin and my older sister to start describing me as 'skeletal' again, and I'll know I'm in properly good shape.

THE RIVER RELAY...
is a fantastic team race made up of 5 stages covering 26 miles along the Thames, from Virginia Water to Kingston. It's a favourite with local clubs and we entered 3x full teams this year. I was running the final leg for our A-team and the guys (and girl! Mixed team) did a great job, handing me the baton in a very comfortable 3rd place overall so I just had to protect the gap. Which I did, with 2nd place a few minutes ahead (the stage was only 5 miles long so not much room to gain ground) and 4th place around 2 mins behind the whole way. It was great to secure a podium spot for the team, but I wasn't at all impressed with my own run. I could feel my quads tiring literally after a mile and from then on I was having to dig really deep just to control the drop off in pace as I got a bit slower every mile from there on in. I don't know what I was expecting, I knew my legs were very tired, but sometimes you just hope you'll have some sort of revelatory performance that marks you smashing through a plateau and moving on to another level of fitness. Not this day though. Tick it off as a solid tempo run, be patient, let the mileage soak in and move on.
Self-absorbed race analysis aside, it was really great to catch up with some club mates in the sunshine afterwards. And our 3rd place out of 37 teams won us £175 for our nominated charity, a tidy morning's work

6 WEEKS TO GO
Ok, so that means only 4 more weeks of heavy training, then it's taper-time again. Up to now I haven't really had any plans for build-up races ( I did a lot in the lead up to London), but plans have now finally come together;
Sun 23rd Sept - New Forest Marathon (will be run as a full-distance training run, managed to get a late entry today!)
Sat 29th Sept - Battersea Park 10K
Sun 14th Oct - Great Eastern Half (still 50:50, haven't decided if it's too close to Amsterdam for a flat-out effort)

There, they should ensure that both endurance and speed are finally-tuned by the big day; or they'll ensure I'm thoroughly burnt out! Still, in for a penny...

Mileage so far: 46, 57, 60, 64, 70, 73

Weeks 3 & 4 of 12 - (13th Aug-26th Aug)

WEEK 3
Mon - 10 miles easy (7:17mm)
Tue - 9 miles - Reps Session 7x 1km @ 3:16 av. (final rep 3:09)
Wed - REST
Thu - 8 miles (7:09mm)
Fri - 8.4 miles inc. 8M Tempo @ 6:24mm
Sat - 15 miles (7:56mm)
Sun - 10 miles easy (7:24mm)

TOTAL MILEAGE = 60.4 miles

WEEK 4

Mon - 5.6 miles treadmill inc 5km in 16:53 (5:26mm)
Tue - 12 miles easy (7:17mm)
Wed - REST
Thu - 12 miles easy (7:22mm)
Fri - 12 miles inc. 9M Tempo @ 6:20mm
Sat - 3 miles easy (8:25mm)
Sun - 20 miles easy (7:32mm)

TOTAL MILEAGE = 64.6 miles

"My weakness as a runner is kind of giving myself outs. Telling myself, 'Oh, all I really need to do is this.' It's a really mentally weak way of running, and I do that a lot. But the [Olympic] Trials is so easy for a guy like me to run - you don't have that out. You run probably the way guys who are really good run all the time.

There's almost something missing from guys who can do that. They're able to run stupid. You can spot them. Guys who love to get drunk. These kind of crazy guys. It's what we're all trying to do, but I'm just too cerebral. It's really gotten in my way ...

... In running, there's just not really luck. It's about putting yourself in this place where you're willing to push in a way that's not normal."

Ian Dobson, US 5000m Olympian (Beijing), talking about the mental side of running and racing

I love this quote. It reminds me that snazzy training programmes** are no substitute for being able (and willing) to absolutely bury yourself in the hard sessions. A couple of months ago I basically committed to myself that I'll try and do that in at least one session per week. Find that red line, and then try and run along it. It's a great feeling when you've really left it all out there, whatever the numbers on the watch say, so I'm trying to embrace that and find some improvement with it.

It's been a busy couple of weeks but thankfully I've been a bit better at fitting in running than I have been at writing a blog about running! At times it's felt like I didn't even know what training I was supposed to be doing, which is kind of why I started doing my 12 mile course day after day last week; but I've been getting the mileage in as well as two quality sessions per week (now handily highlighted in red).

Firstly then, mileage. These last couple of weeks have taken me to 6x consecutive weeks of increasing mileage now (think that's a personal record, if you can have records for such things) averaging 60ish for the last 3. That's encouraging especially as my legs don't seem to be complaining and makes me feel like I'm more likely to peak at the right time this time round, within a couple of weeks of the marathon hopefully. Yes, the mileage chart is indeed a thing of beauty at the moment.

I've been tracking miles since London against my 2010 numbers as the end of that year included my current 10K and Marathon PBs (36:03 and 2:59:41). I think I'm comfortably ahead of where I was for now, I just need to keep the work load high and consistent through this next 8 weeks to stay ahead of that Abingdon build-up (I ran it in wk41). That said, keeping this upward trend going for a 7th week is going to be difficult now as I carded a couple of zeroes to start wk35. Good miles today (Wednesday) but I'll still need to average 13+ miles a day for these five days to do it. Should be an interesting test for me and for Lyndsey's tolerance levels.

The quality sessions have been just that over the fortnight, particularly the short speed work. 3:09 is the quickest km I've ever run I'm pretty sure (5:05mm) and the treadmill 5km is certainly a PB for that 'format' too - if only that translated directly to the road (it really doesn't if you're wondering, how much it differs by is open to debate). Both long tempos were tough for their own reasons, the first one run in 28 degree heat (definitely my 'red line' session of the week, thought I was going to faint at the end!) and the second one over a hilly course. Well pleased with both sessions and I feel confident that the pace will come down to the 6:10-6:15mm pace I was hitting for these back in March as and when I run one in decent conditions on a flat course.

So, it's all coming together nicely. With all the summer fun and frolics behind us we now have a string of quiet weeks and weekends which give me a fair chance of getting in all the training I need too. And, I'm back on the 'no booze' wagon after Sunday's hungover twenty miler reminded why that's a good idea.

No. Honestly, I am. I really mean it this time. 

**and believe me, I've read them all.

Mileage so far: 46, 57, 60, 64,

Week 2 of 12 - (6th Aug-12th Aug)

Mon - 10.5 miles easy (7:14mm)
Tue - REST
Wed - 10.5 miles inc. 7M hilly tempo @ 6:17mm
Thu - 7 miles (6:58mm)
Fri - 7 miles inc. 2 x 1M (5:39, 5:30 - a bit downhill though)
Sat - 22.34 miles (7:46mm)
Sun - REST

TOTAL MILEAGE = 57.4 miles

"Running is a lot like life. Only 10 percent of it is exciting, 90 percent is slog and drudge."

Dave Bedford

Now that is starting to look a bit more like a proper week of marathon training! I think I was struggling with being stuck in holiday-mode still early in the week. On Tuesday I even got all the kit on, opened the front door... and stopped right there. I just didn't have the energy (probably mental more than physical) to go out. So I didn't. And vowed to man-up and get it done the following morning.

Which I did. I set out with a 7 mile tempo run as the plan, but knew it would be tough as the suffolk countryside (I was home visiting my folks) is pretty undulating. As such, I figured watching the mile splits on the way round might not be that useful so, with the HR strap back at home, I ran this one just on feel! Very pleased to walk away with a 6:17 average pace, I think that would have been worth a bit more on a flat course so it kind of puts me in the same shape that I was early in the London campaign (and I was in good shape then).

The other key run of this week was ticking off another solid long run. It was great to have company for this. Tom and me met fellow Amsterdam-er, Harry, at 8am at Hampton Court station. By which time Harry had already been running for nearly two hours! Three hours of perfect sunshiney running along the Thames and around Bushy Park later and we'd all ticked off our planned long runs for the day - Tom with 16, me with 22 and Harry with a nice round 35 miles! He's one of them mad ultra-running types, along with being pretty talented over the shorter distances and it was very impressive to see how ok he looked after 5hrs of running!

Anyway, nice to be done with the week's training by Saturday lunchtime. And to feel encouraged by the running done this week, especially that last day 4-day block. No outright reps session in their this week, but I'm already perhaps starting to think that a quality tempo section per week is more important. When I can though, I'll get them both in.

Target for this week is extending that tempo run to 8-9M, and getting the mileage into the 60s (that would be the fifth weekly increase in as many weeks)...

In other news this week;
* As my mate Rob pointed out, Alistair Brownlee's name needs to be added to my heroes T-shirt; for his Gold, and for finishing with a 29:07 10k. Which included a fair amount of dicking about with a flag at the end!
* On that note, Mo's name will now be underlined and expressed in Italics on the aforementioned garment, for sealing a legendary 10000/5000 double with the gutsiest final 800m of running that any of us will surely ever see.
* My 2 weeks of holiday draws to a close today, as does the Olympics, and I'm dreading the come-down tomorrow. I kind of forget that work existed and have gotten very used to the cheerful gold medal-fest that has filled my days more recently. A cheeky pre-work 10-miler tomorrow morning should set me on the straight and narrow, ready for the return to normality...

Mileage so far: 46, 57,

Week 1 of 12 (30th Jul - 5th Aug)

Mon - 10 miles (7:20mm)
Tue - 6.34 miles inc. 6x 300m av. 53 secs + 1M in 5:39
Wed - AM  5.1 miles (7:31mm) / PM  5 miles (7:23mm)
Thu - REST
Fri - 20 miles (7:18mm)
Sat - REST
Sun - REST

TOTAL MILEAGE = 46 miles

"There is almost a slight melancholy. I realised on the podium that that's probably it for me. I don't think anything is ever going to top that."

Bradley Wiggins on winning Olympic Gold in the time trial, just 9 days after winning the Tour de France

As marathon training creaks back into action I thought I should get the blog back up and running too, let you all know how much training I am... and am not doing.

Since London I've basically been doing whatever running I want to, but that's levelled out as a pretty decent amount (averaged 48 miles a week) with a fair few races in there too as I've been competing in my club's Trophy series. No times to write home about, but some solid performances over the summer, including sub-37 for 10k and a lumpy 10-miler in 60:45, which suggests that I've carried some of that fitness out of the spring marathon campaign.

That said, over the last few weeks I've probably been fitting less running in, with other things filling up the calendar (as they tend to in the summer!), so the 12-weeks-to-go coming round has been a useful reminder that I should probably start running a few more miles again and drinking a little less beer.

So week one done and 46 miles is a solid if not remarkable total. Three non-running days is too many but an amazing weekend of Olympic action kind of got in the way.The main positive from the week is that it included a proper long run of 20 miles which felt manageable if not easy - even though it did include 18x round a 0.9 mile loop. I wasn't feeling particularly imaginative that day and it's gotta be good mental toughness training right? I also got in another good speed session; I've been doing a fair few shorter, harder speed sessions over the summer, kind of in place of tempo runs. Anyway, this was 6x 300m programmed into the garmin as 0.19M, done on the road, and I felt good and fast averaging 53 seconds for the reps (4:39mm). I'm keen to keep in a true quality speed session through this marathon build-up to see if sharpening my top-end running translates to feeling easier and more able at actual race paces.

For this next week though, I'm planning to put in a longish tempo run to see where my speed endurance is at. I fear probably not where I want it to be, but if I can get one under my belt along with another solid long run and a weekly total that starts with a 5x at least, then that'll all be a step in the right direction.

Aside from my own running, this week has been punctuated by some of the most memorable running, and sporting performances, that I will surely ever witness. My first live experience of the 2012 Olympics was watching the time trials in Esher on Wednesday which was amazing. That day I wore a T-shirt which said 'Wiggo is my Hero'. No doubt even more true by the end of that day, but I now need a new t-shirt which says 'Wiggo, Jess & Mo are my Heroes'. Being in the stadium on 'that Saturday' night was just Epic and I feel very privileged to have been able to watch it all unfold first-hand. Being off work for the Olympics has been great fun, I think Lyndsey and me probably watched 10-12 hours of it one day last week. Just need to make sure I'm actually getting out there too and doing some suitably inspired training mixed-in with all the TV-watching...

Mileage so far: 46,

3:00:23

Ok, so the dust has settled now. The numbers above definitely aren't what I wanted from this campaign, but it was a full-on effort at a low 2:5* that just didn't happen on the day. My quads were getting achey from as early as 14-15 miles so I knew from then on really that it wasn't going to happen. Full post-mortem in the link below:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/171382457

All that said, I really enjoyed the race (on reflection...). I enjoyed the crowds for a change, and the city looked great in the sunshine. It felt good to have found my absolute limits on the day and yet I'm still sure that on a different day it could have gone very differently. That training is still in there somewhere, it's given me a few PBs on the way here and I fully intend to build on that from this point on. Lyndsey saved the 'Team Armstrong' day anyway with a gritty 10-minute PB, finishing in 4:03:45; if I can ever persuade her to run more than 3 times a week then she could be deadly at this marathon lark!

So champagne drunk, pizza eaten. Been for a 2-mile jog tonight and my quads are still thoroughly wrecked, but otherwise all is well. Already planning the next one, it's going to be epic...

Weekly Update w/e 15.04.12 - 1wk to VLM12!

Mon - 4.11 miles (7:33mm)
Tue - 11.69 miles Interval Session (6:35mm)
Wed - REST
Thu - REST
Fri - 12 miles (7:14mm)
Sat - Dulwich parkrun - 17:23 (5:34mm) 6th/161 - New PB! | +2.4 mile wu/wd
Sun - 13.11 miles (6:53mm)

Total mileage – 46.5 miles (6:54mm)

"It's precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get that feeling, through this process, of really being alive."

Haruki Murakami

So, week -2 of the taper done and it went almost exactly to plan. Quite a brutal reps + tempo session at club on Tues was the last real fitness-builder. Two days of rest following that because I felt like I needed them, then Friday morning's easy 12 miles proved to be good prep for a fast 5km on Saturday. I made the relatively long trip to the inaugural Dulwich parkrun because I thought I was in better shape than my 17:32 at Bushy had shown and I thought it looked like a pretty quick course. I turned out to be right on both counts. The most stubborn of all the PBs falls again, a little more convincingly this time; and to be honest I couldn't have asked for a better final confidence booster for this Sunday. Yes, it's now officially 'this' Sunday...

Will probably do another update pre-race, but for now I'm just focusing on trying to look after myself this week, sleeping enough, eating enough, resting enough. Expo Wednesday evening, day off Friday, into London to the Hotel on Saturday. Bring it on.

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74, 61, 49, 64, 73, 45, 53, 46

 

Weekly Update w/e 08.04.12 - 2wks to VLM12

Mon - REST
Tue - AM 4 miles (7:57mm) | PM 6 miles (7:16mm)
Wed - 10 miles (7:14mm)
Thu - REST
Fri - 8.77 miles (6:17mm) inc 3km | 3km | 2km (average 5:49mm)
Sat - 6.5 miles (7:24mm)
Sun - 18 miles (6:43mm)

Total mileage – 53.3 miles (6:59mm)

"Training for a marathon is the reverse of racing a marathon. You train the first ten weeks with your heart, pouring yourself into every workout, and then you run the last two weeks with your head, purposefully not allowing your heart to take your legs even close to the well. But when you race a marathon, run the first 20 miles with your head, keeping your emotions, excitement and energy harnessed until the last 10k, when you let everything in your heart out."

Ryan Hall - Fastest US Marathoner ever (2:04:58)

Taper time is properly here then. I've been saving this quote; I really like the idea of running a marathon with enough intelligence and control to be able to 'attack' the last 6 miles. But the statistics tell us that the vast majority of runners never manage this. We'll have to see how I feel coming out of the Isle of Dogs. As long as it's significantly better than I did at that point in 2010, that'll be good enough.

It's been a pretty good week of running, just easy-paced runs through the first part of the week to help recover from last Sunday's race and then a second rest day on Thursday mostly because, with an early start at work and then driving back to my Parents' straight from there, there was just no slot to fit a run in. That left me reasonably fresh for a speed session on Friday. Lyndsey had some reps to do on her programme so we both headed to the excellent, 'olympic-standard' track at the sports centre in my home town, Bury St Edmunds. It was good fun, in the sunshine and with the track to ourselves. I aimed to do 3 x 3km but ended up cutting the last one short as I couldn't hold the pace anymore. Still, high quality stuff and just the kind of sharpening up I should be doing at this stage.

Sunday's long run was the last proper 'long' one of the campaign and that was useful motivation to get out and get it done as it was raining pretty heavy all morning. Being the last long session, I wanted to do some faster paced running within it, as a final confidence booster. I was running a 4-mile (ish) loop 4 times and the plan was to do the first lap at 6:55mm, then drop the pace my about 10 secs a mile for each consecutive lap. It went almost exactly to plan, although I had to absolutely bury myself on the last lap to hit the numbers. It felt good though, probably because I knew the next time I'd be digging that deep wouldn't be until marathon day:

1 mile w/u

4.06 miles @ 6:52mm

4.06 miles @ 6:45mm

4.05 miles @ 6:35mm

4.83 miles @ 6:26mm

(17 miles @ 6:38mm)

Quality wise, it's the best long run I've done (not including the races) so it's a great way to bookend the campaign as I enter the taper now. Two weeks of reduced mileage coming up, to let the body recover and get fresh again for the big day. Lyndsey and me have managed to book a room in a great hotel right near Tower Bridge for the night before the race so it should make a real event of the whole weekend and means we only have an 11 minute train ride to contend with on the morning to get to the start now. Can't wait. 13 days to go...

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74, 61, 49, 64, 73, 45, 53

Weekly Update w/e 01.04.12 - 3wks to VLM12

Mon - REST
Tue - 7.00 miles (7:03mm)
Wed - 3.49 miles (7:23mm) (binned it halfway through and went home, v.tired still)
Thu - 9.66 miles (6:40mm) inc. 4 mile Tempo in 23:16 (5:49mm)
Fri - 6.76 miles (6:46mm)
Sat - 3.19 miles (7:12mm)
Sun - Kingston Breakfast Run - 15.75 miles in 1:37:54 (6:13mm) 23rd / 1400+

Total mileage – 45.8 miles (6:41mm)

Me and my new mate, Pete. Making a mockery of my focused approach with his baggy shorts and unattached status. I beat him... only by one second though!!

I wrote the below last night. I felt pretty bummed about yesterday's race then. Less so now. Either way, I've written it so you may as well read it...

"I really don't know what to write today. This morning's race went well, actually as well as could be expected based on the calculators. It's just, I thought I might be able to run something a bit special today. All through the build-up I'd earmarked Kingston as a final chance to nail a really fast long run, and today's run fell short of what I'd hoped for.

Still, when I decided to run Cranleigh hard last weekend, I knew it would make it less likely that Kingston would go perfectly and that turned out to be the case. Despite the light week, my legs didn't feel 100% fresh this morning. I was feeling it in my quads by 8 miles today and that turned out to be telling.

Enough grumbling though, training has gone and continues to go brilliantly and I'm injury-free with 3wks to go (touchwood)! Also, from these last two long races, I now know everything I need to know about how fast to try and run on the day. The lack of any sort of 'performance epiphany' this morning in Kingston perhaps served as a timely reminder for me that I probably won't see any sort of revelatory breakthrough in my fitness levels on the streets of London either. At the end of the day, your training and the best runs within it tell you all you need to know about what's going to be achieveable, very tough, or impossible come marathon day. It's really just about how honest you're being with yourself when you set off. Of my three attempts at the London Marathon, the two when I finished and 2010 when I dropped out, I have without exception suffered badly from 18 miles onwards. There's only one thing that causes that and that's running too fast in the first half, which ultimately comes from kidding yourself about what time you can realistically run. There'll be no kidding myself on the start line this year; because more than anything I want to walk (hobble) away this time, having had a good experience of what is one of the most epic road races in the world. And if that means an attempt at a PB-of-my-dreams has to wait for another day and another campaign, when I can be more sure of it (for we can never be totally sure of anything over 26.2 running miles), then so be it."


One final thing thing worth pointing out. My tempo run from Thursday, done round the course of Sunday's race, makes me think that my 10K PB (36:03) would probably be under serious threat if I could find a flat 10K race somewhere accessible in the next 2.5 weeks to test that theory (I can't, I've looked). That was 4 miles at PB pace on my own in training, and my usual rule-of-thumb is if I can do 2/3rds of the distance solo in training, I can probably nail the whole thing in a race. And this particular run was a little compromised too; by dodging pedestrians, kerbs and side roads through Hampton Court, whilst monitoring the run on my HTC on a shit GPS training app I downloaded free because my Garmin battery had died about 2 minutes into the warm-up. Touch screens, sweaty hands and sub-6 minute miling do not mix.

Here we go then, week -3. I've had a rest day, and a sports massage this evening, and all is well. Bring on the, um, snow... on Wednesday apparently! Random but true. 20 days to go...

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74, 61, 49, 64, 73, 45

Weekly Update w/e 25.03.12 - 4wks to VLM12!

Mon - 10.15 miles easy (7:20mm)

Tue - AM 6.23 miles (7:33mm) | PM 5.34 miles (6:40mm) inc. 4x 0.38 miles @ (pace) 5:12 / 5:10 / 4:58 / 4:53
Wed - 10.52 miles (7:19mm)
Thu - 13.75 miles (6:34mm) inc 10 mile Tempo in 62:20 (6:14mm)
Fri - 6 miles easy (7:39mm)
Sat - REST
Sun - Cranleigh 21 - 21.21 miles in 2:16:45 (6:27mm) 6th/500+?

Total mileage – 73.2 miles (6:56mm)

"To boast of a performance which I cannot beat is merely stupid vanity. And if I can beat it that means there is nothing special about it. What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come."
Emil Zatopek - Triple Olympic Gold Medallist, 5000m | 10000m | Marathon, Helsinki 1952

I am over the brow of the hill. There is still some important training to do in the next 4 weeks, but the hardest work and the biggest volume is now done with. And that's a good feeling.

This week didn't quite break my weekly mileage record, but it really came down to what state did I want to be in for the race on Sunday. I could have ground out a few more easy miles on Friday or Saturday, but honestly I was pretty wiped out by then from doing 52 miles Mon-Fri. Even as it was, with the easy 6 on Friday and a complete rest day following that, I still felt exhausted late Saturday and took an hour nap to try and feel better. That seemed to work a bit, and with a decent night's sleep I felt much better and much fresher come Sunday morning. That being the case and the conditions being perfect for a good run, I finally made my mind up about how to approach this one. All along, in my programme Cranleigh was scheduled to be just a final steady long run; but I'd been thinking for a while that there was a better twenty in me than that I managed in tough conditions at Thanet. So, this would be the last opportunity to test that theory.

I set off near the front and made sure not to get carried away as a chain of two or three lead groups strung out ahead of me. I went through mile 1 in a controlled 6:31 and then concentrated on managing the pace and reeled off a string of high 6:2Xs, making sure to not go any quicker than that. It's a great course through gently undulating Surrey country lanes and I felt relaxed and strong still as we completed the first 9 mile loop and went back through Cranleigh village centre. I was basically in a group of four now and we were sharing the work as we started the first of two 6 mile laps. I was aware of my quads feeling achey, leftovers from Thursday's tempo run, but it wasn't slowing me down so I pushed on. Through 13-14 miles I naturally drifted off the front of that group to keep my splits under 6:30 and I had a long quiet spell running on my own back to the village to start the final 6 mile loop. Back in the village there was some good roadside support which gave me a real lift and as I swung left to start the final lap I suddenly felt better again. I was naturally finding myself speeding-up a little bit and pyschologically, I knew I only had to follow this route one more time. I knew then I'd be able to hold the pace right through to the end. I was passing people on their first time round the 6-miles now, and getting some really nice cheering-on and support from a lot of them, which I returned every time. I saw a couple of clubmates, one of whom told me I was 6th! I didn't think I could be so high up but it gave me a lift all the same. I had to work pretty hard through miles 19 & 20 to keep on pace but before I knew it I was cruising down the final downhill back towards the start/finish, and across the line. I was tired, but not wasted, and was over the moon with my time.

According to my garmin I went through twenty in 2:09:10 which is an unofficial PB and my 5 mile splits were 32:24, 32:27, 32:13, 32:06. It couldn't have gone better really. And it turns out I was 6th overall, which was way higher than I thought I'd be. Lyndsey had a strong run too, running the distance at marathon PB pace, but not enjoying the final 6-mile lap in the rising heat. Still, just 4 weeks to go now and we're both on track for a good day in the City. I'm looking forward to a final smackdown in Kingston next Sunday, then I'm really looking forward to the taper...

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74, 61, 49, 64, 73

Weekly Update w/e 18.03.12 - 5wks to VLM12

Mon - 10 miles easy (7:20mm)
Tue - 11.62 miles (6:36mm) inc. 15min @ MP | reps 3,4,5,4,3mins | 15min @ MP
Wed - REST
Thu - AM 4.08 miles (7:37mm) / PM 12 miles (6:54mm)
Fri - REST
Sat - Bushy parkrun 17:32 (5:36mm) 10th/808 | 2.98 miles WU/WD
Sun - Datchet Dashers 20 miles (6:41mm) | 0.7 miles WD

Total mileage – 64.5 miles (6:56mm)

"Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'."

Paul Tergat - Kenyan past marathon world-record holder

2 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot to beat a PB by, but honestly I couldn’t be more happy with running 17:32 at Bushy on Saturday. My previous best of 17:34 was set 28 months ago (!) at Brighton Parkrun so it was the oldest of all my PBs. Bettering it feels like breaking through a barrier – I feel confident now that I can take more off that time, especially as Saturday’s run was a really evenly-paced effort too with mile splits of 5:38, 5:40, 5:35. Having the fitness from this marathon campaign gave me the confidence to not try and ‘bank’ time early on, and it paid off. I should have at least one opportunity to get back to Brighton Parkrun before London so it’ll be good to see if I can improve that time further round the (arguably) faster, all-paved course in Hove Park.

But of course it’s not about running a fast 5k right now and I’ve still been putting the work in on the big marathon-specific sessions. Tom and me joined Datchet Dashers, a Windsor-based club, on Sunday for their annual 20-mile training run. It was a good opportunity to tick off another twenty with some company and different scenery, and we quickly settled into a good pace with a lead group of about 7 guys, and a lead bike! Not bad for a ‘training run’! The route was epic, through Windsor Great Park and around Virginia Water lake and the Dashers really looked after us with drink stations, marshalls and even some supporters. We both felt really good and wound up the effort the whole way from 7:00mm at the start to a few 6:20s at the end. It’s a much better training session than I thought we’d come away with and is another big confidence booster for marathon day.

Plan for this coming week is highest mileage of the campaign, so 74+? I’m all set to do it sensibly though; I’ve got Wednesday working from home and then Thursday & Friday off work completely so I can rest properly in-between the double runs and sleep a bit longer in the mornings. I’ve broken in a brand new pair of Asics Nimbus 13s this evening (thanks Sweatshop for not quibbling) so the legs are looked after and I’ll be making sure to keep the easy runs easy. I even did some stretching earlier... Key runs will be another quality (hopefully!) long tempo run on Thursday, and the Cranleigh 21 on Sunday, the final twenty of the schedule. If all goes to plan, I’ll then be cutting back and tapering down the next week so I can hit the Kingston Breakfast Run (16 miles) on Sunday 1st April properly fresh...

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74, 61, 49, 64

Weekly Update w/e 11.03.12 - 6wks to VLM12

Mon - REST
Tue - 7.66 miles (6:54mm)
Wed - 5.95 miles easy (7:18mm)
Thu - 11 miles (6:15mm) inc. 10 mile Tempo in 61:24 (6:08mm)
Fri - 4.14 miles easy (7:18mm)
Sat - 8.7 miles (7:13mm)
Sun - 12.29 miles (7:11mm)

Total mileage – 49.7 miles (6:58mm)

If it wasn't for Thursday's session this week wouldn't really have any redeeming features, even as a cut-back week. But, Thursday's tempo run was an absolute dream, so I can live with only having one quality session in there. I think prior to this the best time I've ever run for 10 miles in training is a high 63:xx so this really was a breakthrough. It was particularly pleasing because I was winding it up the whole way through with the second 5 miles in 30:15 and the final mile in 5:53. It basically points to me being fitter than I've ever been before. I think. Very happy about that. Better try not to stuff it up then.

That's a poignant reminder-to-self to keep the training sensible as it was actually this weekend last year that I did the 26-mile 'training run' that put the finishing touches to an injury that put me out for 8 weeks. No such misfortunate this weekend thankfully, although my long run did end up as a pitiful 12 miler rather than the intended 16. Don't know what was wrong really, other than I had almost no energy and I hate my new trainers. Asics seem to have created a top of the range lightweight, cushioning shoe (Excel-33s) which feels too hard to be a high-mileage shoe but that aren't light enough to really feel fast either. And I paid a ton for the privilege. I was angry about it for the whole run today, another contributing factor to deciding to chuck it in without suffering the final 4 miles. Will be interesting to see just how 'no-quibble' Sweatshop's 30-day exchange policy really is.

PS - if you don't really care about running shoes, sorry about that last bit. Just be glad you didn't have to suffer that rant in glorious technicolor like Lyndsey did... : )

Anyway, I'm still up-beat, and looking forward to just 4 more weeks of 'proper' training. That's long enough to carve out a little more fitness so I'm looking to run reasonably high-mileage still for 3 of those 4 weeks, with the exception being a proper mini-taper week for the Kingston Breakfast Run (16 miles) on 1st April.
And next Saturday we have the 3rd trophy race of 2012 with our running club, at Bushy parkrun, so it'd be nice to post a decent 5k time there.

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74, 61, 49

Weekly Update w/e 04.03.12 - 7wks to VLM12

Mon - 5 miles easy (7:37mm) / PM 3 miles easy (7:46mm)
Tue - 10.87 miles (6:41mm) inc. 15min @ MP | 4x 4min | 15min @ MP
Wed - REST
Thu - AM 4.07 miles (7:21mm) / 15 miles (6:53mm)
Fri - 3 miles easy (7:49mm)
Sat - REST
Sun - Thanet 20 - 2:12:26 (6:37mm) 15th/411

Total mileage – 61.0 miles (6:57mm)

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

Frank Shorter, Olympic Marathon Champion 1972

It would have been nice to post up a few more miles for this week, but with the 23 miler last Sunday to recover from and a couple of light days needed prior to the race on Sunday just gone, 60+ still feels like a good place to have come out. It’s been a while since I’ve had serious DOMS in my quads from a big run but I certainly felt it Monday & Tuesday and then again after my mid-week long run. But I think these long runs are really building some toughness into my legs and that’s what I’m going to need once I get to the Isle of Dogs in April.

Tuesday’s speed session was done with Matt & Tom from my club and having those guys alongside made hitting a respectable pace in the 4 minute reps much easier. We got faster throughout them, all of us seemed pretty in control and an average pace of 5:41mm for the 4x reps is a great result. The ‘Marathon Pace’ sections that book-ended those reps were done at 6:30-6:40mm and the total session gave us almost 11 miles with plenty of quality in it. We’re doing this session again next week, and I might even use it as the basis of my Tuesday quality sessions right through to the marathon now.

We were expecting to get a proper weather-bashing in the race on Sunday, but as it turned out the rain held off until we’d both finished, which made it slightly more pleasant I guess. This one was always going to be training with a number on rather than a 100% effort and I had a couple of plans going into the race about how I was going to run it; both of which started with setting out at 6:50mm pace and getting faster later on, so that’s how I started off. A few miles in, and having had a fair few glances of the definitely-not-flat Kent coastline we still had left to tackle, I settled on the more moderate of my master plans – basically, increasing the pace by 10 seconds each 5 miles, finishing up with the last 5 miles at 6:20mm. I felt very comfortable through 10 miles and was still fairly confident of nailing the whole session. But as we twisted and turned through the 2nd 10 miles, up zig-zag cliff paths, then back down, then back up, my mile splits got more and more erratic. I was going faster, and overtaking people consistently still, I just couldn’t quite get down to the paces I’d set out for. Anyway, I’m very chuffed with going out in 67mins and back in 65mins – and managing 6:07 for the 20th mile, which was (finally) completely flat, shows I probably hadn’t thrown everything at it either... which is promising. Lyndsey took it steady and ran an impressive negative split too, to dip under three hours (2:58) at comfortably under marathon PB pace. Worth the long drive for both of us then.

An easier week coming up again now, no doubles and a measly 16-miler scheduled for next weekend. That leads in to two final big weeks, with a few days booked off work in the second week to give me every chance of nailing every run. 7 weeks, it’s creeping up now.

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74, 61

Weekly Update w/e 26.02.12 - 8wks to VLM12

Mon - REST
Tue - AM 6 miles (7:05mm) / PM 6.78 miles (7:16mm)
Wed - AM 6.23 miles (6:55mm) / PM 8 miles (6:53mm)
Thu - 13 miles (6:38mm) inc. 7 miles tempo @ 6:13mm
Fri -  5 miles easy (7:47mm)
Sat - Eastbourne parkrun 18:29 (5:56mm) 1st/82 | 2.53 miles WU/WD
Sun - 23.35 miles (7:06mm)

Total mileage – 74.0 miles (7:02mm)

"Someone who is busier than you is running right now."

Nike

Legs felt pretty good after Wokingham, the usual soreness in the legs generally from a race effort but they quickly got back to feeling normal through Tuesday & Wednesday's steady running. Thursday was the second long tempo run of the schedule, a 7 mile section again, but it felt much harder than the last session three weeks ago. Pace came out the same, but I had to work much harder for it. That's ok though. This session will usually always be preceded by a rest day (moved to Monday this week to recover from the race) and it was only 4 days after the Half so I'm taking confidence that I can still hit that pace in those circumstances. In the next few weeks the tempo section increases to 8 > 9 > 10 miles, and I'll be making it the key session of the week.

Eastbourne's new parkrun is a winding course around a flat park, about 70% hard path and tarmac, the rest on grass and mud. The latter was really tricky going in the rain, I was dancing about all over the place in racing flats trying to maintain forward motion at a respectable pace, but in general I reckon it'll be a fast course when the ground is dry and hard. Of course, that's not based on the time I ran, but there we go. I'd love to say I was coasting round, but I was pushing plenty, it just wasn't coming out very fast. Still, winning was fun, Lyndsey walked away with another shiny new PB (making my moaning about the mud seem even less valid) and we went for a great, lazy breakfast with Lyndsey's family after so a good Saturday morning all round.

Sunday's long run on the schedule was supposed to be 16-18 miles, but I wanted to try something long and steady because I've been starting to think endurance might be the weak link at the moment. Thankfully, 23 at that pace felt really manageable. Legs were tiring towards the end, but could have done another 3 miles at the same pace so that feels like a good place to be right now. Lyndsey gave me a fair telling-off when I got back though for throwing in a random 23-miler (as I have an impressive history of ruining entire marathon build-ups with arbitary very long runs) so with confidence in my stamina restored, I'd better make sure I follow the scheduled long runs from here on in...

This week will be more of the above hopefully, with long reps added on Tuesday and probably more of a cut-back towards the end of the week as we're doing the 'Thanet 20' in Ramsgate, Kent, next Sunday.

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50, 74

Weekly Update w/e 19.02.12 - 9wks to VLM12

Mon - 4.50 miles easy (7:17mm)
Tue - 8 miles (7:00mm)
Wed - 8.08 miles treadmill (6:54mm) inc. 5km Tempo @ 6:11mm
Thu - REST
Fri - 11.67 miles easy (7:26mm)
Sat - 4.08 miles (7:36mm)
Sun - Wokingham Half Marathon - 1:20:51 (6:10mm) 99th/2185 | 1.38 miles WU/WD

Total mileage – 50.9 miles (6:59mm)

"The will to win means nothing if you haven't the will to prepare."

Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner

I'm really happy with how this week has gone, but more than that I'm relieved. Relieved that the calf strain turned out to be nothing and relieved to now have a race time in the bag that hints towards the form I already thought I was in.

Monday's first run back was a nervy experience as the calf still felt really tight. So I stretched it, spent another 24hrs worrying and then tried it again Tuesday night at club. Thankfully, it already felt much better by then and I really enjoyed running strong and pain-free again. Wednesday I took the opportunity to try out what 3 miles of Sunday's race pace might feel like having missed a week; and the answer was pretty dam tough! Still, I kept the faith and hoped the fitness would come through for me on race day.

By Sunday my legs felt good and the weather had shaped up pretty much perfectly for a good run - dry roads, light winds and cold. There was a big turn out from my club and both my Wife, Lyndsey, and my mate, Rob, were also looking for PB runs so the scene was set nicely. I'd already decided to set out no faster than current PB pace (6:15mm) and I was happy to find after 3-4 miles that felt pretty comfortable. I ended up running with a guy I've got to know from 26.2RRC (a Surbiton club) and it was good to have somebody to talk to and manage the pace with on the way round. Both aiming for 1:21:xx, we were picking people off the whole way round and by 10 miles we knew that, barring a spectacular blow-up, we had that time in the bag. In the final 3 miles the pace started to feel harder to hold, so I dug in deeper to make sure I didn't throw away a good time - and ended up with final miles of 6:02 & 6:03 so well pleased with that!

It feels great to be posting a new PB by 1min+ just a few weeks into the new year, but its not half as impressive as Rob's PB by over 3mins and Lyndsey's by over 7mins! A good day at the office for all then, marathon training back on track, looking forward to getting stuck into some higher mileage again this week...

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0, 50

Weekly Update w/e 12.02.12 - 10wks to VLM12

Total mileage (running) - 0 miles
Total training time (stationery bike) - 4hrs 7mins, from 4 x sessions

Oh dear. This week hasn't gone at all to plan. Although, I guess there is at least a slightly comical irony to the best week of the build-up so far being immediately followed by the worst.

My calfs were ridiculously tight on Monday after the weekend's running, but I'd planned a rest day anyway so thought nothing of it. But when I tried to run on Tuesday morning, I came to a halt after just a few strides with a fairly fiery pain in my right calf. I was a bit surprised, but I didn't worry too much, just got on the stationery bike and did some of that instead. I had sports massage booked Wednesday evening anyway. Tony (my Physio) gave the calf a good working over, and various poking around and thorough stretching didn't seem to unearth anything particularly worrying.

When my planned Thursday run started and finished as quickly as my Tuesday one, I did throw my toys out of the pram a little bit. It took me that afternoon to calm down and get my head round the fact that this was going to mean at least one complete week of lost running. Since that point, I have hit the cross-training with some enthusiasm and I have, thankfully, felt the calf improving day-by-day since. I can't feel it at all now except for a tightness still when I'm stretching it, but I've been doing the strengthening exercises Tony suggested and I feel pretty confident now that it will be good to go tomorrow. I even did a test run up and down my road before going to the gym earlier and everything felt nice and solid with no pain, so definitely looking good.

The coming week on the plan is lighter in terms of mileage than most because it leads up to the Wokingham Half. As long as I can get back to steady running ok this week, I'm still going to do the race. It feels less likely that it'll be the full blooded form-test that I had planned, but I'm still keen to run it as a marathon-pace run or something similar if that feels more sensible come next Sunday.
So hopefully, tomorrow night's first-run-back will go well and I can put this week behind me. 10 wks to go still is ages. As long as I can get back to running this week, I'm not worried... ; )

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0

Weekly Update w/e 05.02.12 – 11wks to VLM12

Mon - 5.58 miles easy (7:43mm)
Tue - 11.33 miles (6:36mm) inc. 6 x 3mins hard, 2mins easy - 5:47mm ave. rep pace
Wed - REST
Thu - 13.01 miles (6:37mm) inc. 7 miles Tempo @ 6:12mm
Fri - 5 miles treadmill easy (7:33mm)
Sat - 1.26 miles w/u / 3.11 miles Nonsuch parkrun 17:37 (5:42mm) 2nd/163 / 5 miles w/d
Sun - 20.04 miles (7:39mm)

Total mileage – 63.4 miles (7:10mm)

"There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."
Bill Bowerman - co-founder of Nike

Week 1 of my 12 week schedule done. It’s gone pretty well, possibly the best week I’ve done actually since getting back into proper training (I’m marking that point as the week after Brighton 10k, late Nov last year). Within it, I also capped off 259 miles in January, my biggest month ever.

Tuesday’s intervals ended up being done within an 11-mile run to Club, because Lyndsey was working late and had to go straight there. Made the best of it though and changed the 6x800m on the plan to 6x 3mins hard, 2mins easy. They came out at average 5:47mm pace, which probably wasn’t quick as they should be but in the circumstances I was happy enough.

Fitting in quality session no.2 on Thursday also took a bit of creative thinking as we were going to my Sister’s for (Her) birthday takeaway. So I plotted out a 13-mile route from our house to Surbiton and got on with it. Tempo section was 7 miles, which will progress up to 10 as I work through the schedule, and going into it I figured 6:20mm would be best-case. To come away with a 6:12mm average and a final mile of 5:54 (I felt good!) was really encouraging and I’m looking forward to building on this session in future weeks. If I could only do one type of session, long tempos would be it. Can be very tough but gets you fit!

Two other runs worthy of comment. Saturday’s parkrun at Nonsuch was the first time I’ve raced that course (it’s our local nowadays and mostly I’ve volunteered there). I was denied the win in the final half a mile unfortunately, but that time is my 2nd quickest ever, just short of my 17:34 PB from 2009 (!!). Would be great to see that get some revision in this marathon campaign.

Racing that parkrun in XC spikes on rock-hard frozen ground ensured my calves felt pretty ruined getting up on Sunday morning. That, combined with the snow, made the first 20-miler of the schedule a pretty arduous experience. All pace goals went out the window and we just settled on trying to get round it. Which we did, largely thanks to my club mate Tom’s determination; so thanks to him for dragging me round. Tick it off, bring on wk 2...

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63

Weekly Update w/e 29.01.12 - 12wks to VLM12

Mon - 8.2 miles steady (7:13mm)
Tue - 8.02 miles progressive tempo inc. 11mins @ 6:40mm | 11mins @ 6:29 | 11mins @ 6:05mm
Wed - REST
Thu - 12.0 miles (6:36mm) inc. 9 miles Tempo @ 6:23mm
Fri - 5 miles easy (7:05mm)
Sat - REST
Sun - 1.94 mile WU / 6.10 miles 'Epsom Perch' Race (6:06mm) 5th/381 | PM 6.73 miles easy (7:04mm)

Total mileage - 48.0 miles (6:51mm)

"You can either be the sickness in your world, or you can be the cure."

Jessie Pavelka - Personal Trainer

In some ways I find the cut-back weeks harder than the big weeks. I start to feel relieved that I've got an easier workload, maybe take my eye off the ball a bit and then suddenly find I'm having to coax myself out the door for each session. This week was made a bit more difficult by an unscheduled trip home to my Folks' place mid-week to visit my Nan in hospital (she's doing well now thankfully) and a Stag-do on Friday night.

But, I still did all the planned sessions, and Thursday's long tempo run and the race on Sunday both went really well. The race particularly was the sign I needed that the training is making a difference. Hard to tell how you've done over an odd distance race, off-road, but I (relatively) comfortably ran a negative split over a tricky course in a time I probably would have been reasonably happy with on flat tarmac, so that's good enough for now.

Very much time to get my eye back on the ball now then as entering the 12-week lead up means I'm now following the 'official' marathon schedule I've been working on over the last few weeks; basically an over-worked spreadsheet that revolves around a few key runs each week.
Tuesdays - Speed; Generally long-ish intervals of 3-15mins in length
Thursdays - Long Tempo; 7-10 miles within a total run of 12-14 miles
Sundays - Quality Long Run; generally ranging from MP+60secs down to MP+15secs
I'm looking forward to the focus becoming nailing these 3x sessions week-in, week-out, rather than total workload. Here goes...

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48 

Weekly Update w/e 22.01.12 - 13wks to VLM12

Mon - 9.50 miles steady (7:18mm)
Tue - 5 miles (7:08mm) AM / PM 9.56 miles tempo inc. 16mins @ 6:18mm | 12mins @ 6:10 | 8mins @ 6:01mm
Wed - REST
Thu - 4 miles (7:18mm) AM / PM 10.14 miles steady (7:01mm)
Fri - 6.01 miles (7:09mm) AM / PM 5 miles easy (7:15mm)
Sat - 7.9 miles (6:26mm) inc. 20mins Tempo @ 5:52mm | 3.41 miles
Sun - 16.33 miles progressive (6:46mm) 4x 4 mile laps @ 7:04mm | 6:54mm | 6:41mm | 6:27mm

Total mileage - 73.5 miles (6:58mm)

Another new weekly mileage record, but more pleasing than the volume is the fact that I still managed to nail 3 good quality sessions (Tue, Sat, Sun). My legs were at their tiredest by Friday and I was considering scrapping the second run that day, but did it and kept it easy and everything held up.

Tuesday's quality session was one I picked from a schedule that Steve Way has put together for Bournemouth AC (look up his blog for some quality inspiration). They're all based on long, pretty hard intervals done at efforts from Marathon Pace right down to short Tempo pace. Five of us at club ran this session together which was great added motivation; we seem to have the beginnings of a 'sub-3' training group coming together so I'm planning to organise a few more Tuesday sessions like this to keep that going.

Saturday the Wife and me decided against a parkrun because I think we both thought getting more sleep would be more beneficial. I still wanted to do something quick though so thought I'd have a go at holding 5:50 pace on my own for a 20 minute 'time-trial'. I even manned-up and did the first 10 mins into the headwind along Eastbourne Promenade before turning round for the second 10 and it felt pretty cool to be weaving in and out of pedestrians at 5:40 pace on the way back.

With Saturday's tempo run going so well, I thought Sunday's 16-miler would be a real struggle and after the first 2 laps I was flagging and having a real bad patch. But picking the pace up gave me something to concentrate on and the end result was better than I'd planned. Based on this run, I'd say I'm already ahead of where I have been, fitness-wise, in any other marathon build-up. That's a good feeling.

I could have murdered a pint this afternoon watching the football, but settled for two bottles of Becks Blue (the non-alcoholic version) in a pint glass instead. Still tasted pretty good. The abstinence continues then.

Mercifully, this coming week is a cut-back week with around 50 miles planned and no doubles! Looking forward to the legs feeling fresher.

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR:
53, 70, 43, 61, 73

Weekly Update w/e 15.01.12 - 14 wks to VLM12

Mon - REST
Tue - 7.32 miles steady (7:02mm) AM / 7.54 miles inc. 5.54 mile Tempo @ 6:00mm PM
Wed - 7.41 miles steady (6:47mm)
Thu - 13.01 miles (7:01mm)
Fri - 6.23 miles recovery (7:42mm)
Sat - 0.9 miles WU / 5.05 miles Lloyd Park, XC no.3 (6:08mm)
Sun - 14.10 miles (7:14mm)

Total mileage - 61.6 miles (6:59mm)

I'm happy to have hit the mileage target for this week (60+ still feels like a lot!) and with two decent quality sessions in there (Tempo & XC race). Really felt like I was flying on Tuesday night's club run so pushed on on my own, but then the legs were a bit narky for the next 2-3 days from running so hard. I need to remember to keep an eye on the next session, even when I'm feeling good, and keep a lid on it a bit - especially at this early stage.

Friday was planned to be an easy double but I cut it to just one run in an effort to feel a bit fresher for Saturday's Cross Country, which seemed to work. Lloyd Park was pretty much firm and dry underfoot and bathed in cold, crisp sunshine which was a bit of a gift! We fielded our strongest team of the season and managed to drag ourselves out of the relegation zone into mid-table stability, 5th of 9 teams overall now. I was pleased with my progressive run, getting quicker on the 2nd lap and having enough energy to outsprint Matt at the end to come 3rd Elmbridge on the day (behind Chris & Tom).

Sunday's long run was always going to feel a bit tough just 24hrs after racing, but running it with Chris & Tom was a big mental boost, the miles ticked by nicely after all. Tom is fairly diligent when it comes to post-run recovery and so chatting to him inspired me to have my first ice bath on Sunday evening! No actual ice, but a bath full enough of icey-cold water to submerge the legs... for 10 minutes. Its fair to say I spent the full first minute whining like a little girl, but it's not so bad after that. It it helps keep me injury-free I don't care, I'll do it!

Plan for the coming week is 70+ miles, a parkrun and the end of the base-training phase.

The Story So Far...

Weekly Update w/e 08.01.12 – 15 wks to VLM12

Mon - REST
Tues - 5.49 miles inc. 2M @ 5:46mm & 1M @ 5:43mm
Wed - 3.75 miles easy (7:20mm)
Thurs - 10 miles steady (7:23mm)
Fri - 7.42 miles steady (6:46mm)
Sat - 2.1 miles w/u / 3.14 miles Bushy Parkrun 18:05 (5:46mm) 6th/1000
Sun - 12 miles (6:56mm)

Total mileage – 43.9 miles (6:59mm)

Cutback week went roughly to plan, although by the end of mid-week I thought it was all going down the pan a bit. Wednesday’s run was supposed to be a steady 10-miler but in the ridiculous winds (30mph?), and with an odd lack of energy, I simply came to a grinding halt on an uphill, turned around and jogged home. Zipped up the man-suit Thursday morning though and got out before 7am to get the 10 miles done. Weather was still rough so the pace wasn’t very impressive, but was pleased to get the week back on track.

Previous to that, Tuesday night’s club session with 2 x long intervals in it went really well. Managed to do the 2 mile section about 15-20 secs quicker than I usually would so another sign that fitness is improving.

Saturday’s Parkrun was good fun, if mostly because of the completely mental amount of people there (first time any parkrun’s ever got attendance into 4 figures!) I felt really good going through the first 2x miles in 5:38 and 5:40 but a headwind along ‘the playground straight’ meant the 3rd mile was rubbish. Still, feel like there’s something good to come with a Parkrun soon so will keep plugging away. Next attempt will be 2 weeks time in Brighton, my favourite course. Should have yet another pair of zany racers to debut there too. This evening I ordered some Adidas Adizero Adios, in the same luminous orange as my new Adizero Bostons (still unworn as yet!). These will replace my Nike Marathoners as my new 5K/10K shoes. Will send a pic of both pairs together for comedy effect once they’re delivered.

So now moving into a final 2x week cycle of ‘base training’ before another cutback week and then into the 12 week schedule. Will try and hit mid-60s and mid-70s mileage in these 2 weeks. And that’ll be the end of the planned cake baking*.

* a term off the RW sub-3 forum really. Building mileage, consistency, frequency etc without doing much structured quality work is referred to as cake baking; building a big aerobic base fitness before going into the more refined phase of a schedule that adds Reps, Tempo Runs, Marathon-paced sections etc. Bake it, then ice it. Sounds cooler when my imaginary friends on the forum use it...


Weekly Update w/e 01.01.12 – 16 wks to VLM12
Mon - 5 miles (6:51mm)
Tue - 10 miles (6:55mm) AM / 5 miles (7:11mm) PM
Wed - 10 miles inc. 4 mile Tempo @ 5:57mm
Thurs - REST
Fri - 8.61 miles (7:25mm) AM / 5.42 miles (8:14mm) PM
Sat - 11.05 miles inc. 10 mile Tempo @ 6:26mm
Sun - 15.78 miles (7:37mm)

Total mileage – 70.9 miles (7:08mm)

So, my biggest week of mileage ever and the good news is I came out of it unscathed; my legs and body in general feel in good shape. I've actually enjoyed the increase in volume, but I think it would have been much harder to get done had I been at work this week (8.5hrs of running). This is the 3rd week of increased mileage completed (51, 53, 70) so this week will be a cut-back week of around 45 miles to let the body absorb the mileage. Hopefully my fitness has increased a bit as a result of this first cycle.

Stand-out run of the week would probably be Saturday's tempo 10-miler, subbed-in instead of a parkrun because I thought something long and fastish would be of more benefit at the moment. Being able to knock these out (relatively) comfortably in under 65 mins is something I've been trying to do for a while, so I was pleased to nail it on this attempt without having to go to the well too much.

Sunday's long run was necessarily done at a comfortable pace because I was pretty hungover still from NYE. Back on the wagon now though so that won't be an issue again for some time hopefully.

Looking forward to a lighter week with 2 rest days now before doing a final 2-week cycle of cake-baking, with a planned 65 followed by 75 miles. That might prove to be a stretch too far once I'm back in the office, but will give it a crack.

Weekly Update w/e 25.12.11 – 17 wks to VLM12

Thought I'd start the weekly updates now as the week just gone would have represented wk1 of a traditional 18 week marathon plan. As I said, I'm not calling it marathon training yet, but can't deny it’s on my mind.

Mon - AM 6.23 miles Treadmill (7:24mm) / PM 6.36 miles (6:46mm)
Tue - 9.02 miles (7:01mm)
Wed - REST
Thurs - 14.00 miles (6:51mm)
Fri - REST
Sat - AM Norwich Parkrun; 18:04 (5:40mm) 11th + 1.4 mile WU / PM 6 miles (6:56mm)
Sun - 7.02 miles (6:57mm)

Total mileage - 53.2 miles (6:56mm)

So, not quite the planned week of 'low 60s' mileage, but still pleased with it. Friday was an unplanned rest day because I was just feeling thoroughly wiped out, so if it hadn't been for that I'm confident total mileage would have been where I'd planned it to be. Also, it represents 2 weeks in a row of 50+, following a long long spell of averaging more like 35 p/wk so the hike in volume has probably been significant enough still. This week I will aim for 60-something to complete a solid 3-week block before a cut-back week.

Saturday's parkrun was the only quality session this week. The more eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that 5:40mm doesn't add up to an 18:04, but the course came up as 3.19 miles on the Garmin! The route's been changed recently due to building work in the park and I suspect they've done a shoddy job of re-measuring. Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Also, the first time I've done a parkrun hungover for some time - the previous evening featured a few pints, some prosecco and a JD & coke. Consequently, it was a suffersome experience, and being overtaken on the line by someone in a Santa hat was presumably my penance being paid.

I was particularly pleased with the pace of the long run, especially as it was over a very undulating out-and-back course towards Guildford (2580ft of ascent/descent for the total run). I haven't really been monitoring the pace during the steady runs or long runs; just turning the watch on, running how I feel, and seeing what I come out with at the end, so it really is good to see the pace normally come out as 6:xx. I'm happy with that and its a good sign that general fitness is increasing, but will try to remain cautious of pushing too hard on these runs.

This week I'll add in another quality session, a fairly short, sharp tempo run of 4 miles, and will hopefully get to either Bushy or Brighton parkrun on New Year's Eve.

In other news, one of my Xmas presents from Lyndsey was a new pair of shoes to run London in - a fluorescent orange pair of Adidas Bostons. They are my zaniest pair of racers yet and I love them.