Week 16 - Race Week

Lots of travelling for work this week with a trip up to Scotland.  Not ideal preparation for a marathon with the travel, eating in hotels and restaurants and long days.  Good job it was taper week or I'd have got no training in.

Managed a couple of 3 mile runs along the Clyde - very, very flat compared with home.  

Saturday was a very chilly day as timekeeper at Parkrun.  Very glad that the strongest winds went through on the Saturday rather than during Sunday's race.

Sunday was very cold first thing.  Managed to hang on to all my layers until about 20 mins before the start of the Stratford Marathon, then bundled them into my bag and dropped them off.  Lots of people shivering on the start line then discarding clothing over the first couple of miles. 

Plenty of water points but the bottled water tasted vile.  Even flavoured with Tailwind it wasn't great.  But needs must ...

Also a lot more runners in the Marathon this year, so it wasn't quite running on your own once the half split off.  And some support around the course, except on the Greenway where you need it most.  At least I had my head prepared for the lack of support on lap 2 this time.

It wasn't the best race I've ever run (in fact it's my slowest ever marathon time 😢) Possibly a bit undertrained - certainly didn't manage all of the pace work and long runs.  Also started a bit too fast - easy done but it took it's toll later.  Was doing well up until about 21 miles when suddenly I ran out of steam.  It always happens at this point, perhaps I'm just not meant to run marathons.  Ended up running 300 paces then walking 100 until mile 25 which I walked just about all of.  Managed to save a bit for running in the park at the finish but my legs had gone pretty stiff by that point.  

Crossing the finish line was lovely, but within seconds my legs had seized up.  Struggled to walk to the bag drop and then to the car.  Have spent the afternoon eating and drinking - managed to drop 1.5kg during the race.  

As always a really nice finishers medal for this event.

Stats for the week:
Miles: 31.13
Elevation gained: 184 metres
LeJog: over half way to John O'Groats

Week 15 - Happy Easter

A big drop in mileage this week for the taper.  It seems strange to have time to do other stuff than just run.  

Tuesday was 3 miles at target marathon pace.  I've no idea what my target pace is really, so I opted for the faster end of my easy pace.  I doubt I'd be able to keep it up for a whole marathon though, especially going up hill out of Welford.

Thursday's tempo run was just 2 miles (plus a warm up and cool down). Strangely the first mile, where it's running slightly downhill, was 20 seconds slower than the second where it's slightly uphill.  Maybe it's to do with not being properly warmed up as the first mile felt much harder than the second.

I didn't run at Parkrun this week, the temptation to ignore easy injunction would have been too much.  Instead a took a turn at volunteering, handing out tokens and congratulations to the finishers.  There's only so many times you can say "well done" or "good running" in a morning.  

Sunday's long run was just a baby at 8 miles.  It was the first long run of the year in warm conditions (19C) which made it feel quite hard at times even though I wasn't pushing the pace at all.  Forgetting to drink for the first 3 miles probably didn't help, as did feeling thirsty before I'd even started to run.  The forecast is for the temperatures to drop back again next week.

Happy Easter.

This week in numbers:
Miles: 19.03
Elevation gained: 227.38 metres
LeJog: 402.82 (not quite halfway)

Week 14 - Now is not the time to get injured

This was to be the biggest mileage week, but things don't always go to plan.  Early in the week I felt a bit of a "niggle" in my right knee, always one of my week spots that can pick up an injury.  As the program I've been following only has a two week taper rather than three weeks I decided to cut my mileage a few days early and make sure I was completing the strength training.  As they say it's better to arrive at the start line undertrained and uninjured than not to start at all.

Tuesday's run was cut short because a meeting at work over-ran by an hour!  How a meeting can run double its planned length and still be going round in circles is one of the wonders of the modern world.  Thursday's run was cut from 8 miles to 5, Saturday's from 10 miles to 6 and Sunday's from 20 miles to just under 13.  There's nothing magic about running 20 miles in training, especially if you've run the distance previously.  

Parkrun formed 3 of the 6 miles on Saturday, run at a steady pace with each mile 10 seconds faster than the previous one.  Well outside my PB but I'd always intended to take it steadily and the pacing was good.

Sunday's run was at an easy pace, though around 30 seconds a mile faster than I usually do my long run at.  The benefit of 14 weeks training and knowing that it was only 13 miles to run.  If (and it's always a big if with a marathon) I can manage that pace on the day I'll be very happy indeed.

Bluebells in The Warren

Stats for the week:
Mileage - 26.43 miles
Elevation gained - 515m
LeJog - 383.79 (a few miles north of Preston)

Week 13 - Brrr...

The start of April and we seem to have gone back to winter, with temperatures stuck in single figures, heavy rain and dull, grey days this week.  I managed a couple of chilly runs in shorts before reverting to the full longs for Saturday and Sunday, plus hat, buff and gloves.

Bought some tailwind to try this week.  Quite nice, very mild taste.  Used it on Sunday's run and felt pretty good throughout without any feeling of stomach churning that gels can produce.  

Not much else to say really.  Still struggling to fit in the strength sessions and the longer mid-week runs.  Now the schools have broken up for Easter I'm hoping that will improve as there are less demands on time in the evenings.  And by the time they go back I'll be well into the taper for the Stratford Marathon.

Highlights of the week were a close up view of a Red Kite taking off from the ground not 50 metres from home and an even closer encounter with a male Yellowhammer sitting in a hedge at the side of the road as I ran past, both on Sunday.

Stats for the week:

Mileage:  38.02
Elevation gained: 538.81 metres
LeJog: 357.36 - just north of St Helens

Week 12 - March goes out like a lamb?

It's really felt like spring might be very close this week.  Warm sunshine, light winds and everything coming into leaf.  So a shock to the system today to be back to temperatures in single figures (and feeling not that far off zero) and windy conditions.

Tuesday's run was an easy five miles with the average pace smack in the middle of my current target range and each mile evenly paced.  Thursday was too nice an evening for running on the roads so instead of going straight out from work I headed home to pick up my trail shoes.  Despite the slower overall pace the uneven surface and steeper gradients put it firmly in the steady to tempo pace effort category for just over 7 miles.

Holly Walk in evening sunshine

Saturday's mileage has really ramped up at this stage in the training cycle.  The day started with a steady 3 miles at Parkrun.  All the fast runners must have been away this week as I finished 30 places higher than last week despite running 6 seconds a mile slower.  Pleased with my pacing on that one as each lap got progressively faster.  This was followed up by a hilly 7 miles at easy pace.

Sunday's long run was 16 miles this week.  Previous 16 mile runs in this cycle have been a real slog with rain, hail and high winds.  So although it was colder and windier today than earlier in the week it was still good conditions for running.  I've been practicing drinking a little every mile in preparation for the marathon in a few weeks time as I don't like chugging down lots of water when you get to the water stations.  I do need to stock up on gels or something similar - going to try experimenting with some Tailwind on the next few longer runs as I find gels hard to stomach in the later stages of a long run or race and cans of coke are hard to carry for 15+ miles.

Didn't do too badly on the strength training this week managing 3 out of 4 of the planned sessions.  Missed Saturday's due to need to let people into the Scout Hut for a coffee afternoon, bake and deliver a cake for an event at church, walk Marley and then finally lock up the hut again.

Stats for the week:

Miles:  38.86
Elevation gained: 716 metres
LeJog: 319.34 miles (half way between Shrewsbury and Tarporley)

Week 11 - Parkrun PB #3

Another easier week in the training programme combined with a dry week weather wise so I took the chance to aim for a PB at this week's Parkrun.  The ground had dried out a lot and apart from a few rabbit holes and moles hills the ground was nice and firm.  In all a very pleasing run with all three laps run at exactly the same pace, a sprint finish and 1 min 11 secs knocked off my PB for the course.  Still got a bit of a way to go to match my best ever age grade score - for now I'm 99th in the Age Graded League.

Today's long run was in complete contrast to last weeks - warm and light winds with clear signs that spring isn't far away now. Lovely to be running in shorts again instead of wrapped up against the weather.

 

View towards Chipping Campden

It's also time for a bit of spring cleaning.  Marley's three teddies have been through the wash and put out to dry in the sun

Mr Ted, Baby Ted and Mrs Ted.  Mrs Ted is Marley's favourite as she's still got her squeak

Next week it's back to the final big mileage grind in the run up (run down?) to the Stratford Marathon.  Need to find time to keep up the strength training or all the good work of the last 10 weeks will be undone.

Stats for the week:
Mileage: 25.68 miles
Elevation gained: 336 metres
LeJog: 280.49 miles (24 miles to Shrewsbury)

Week 10 - More weather disruption and too much to do

As we approach the peak weeks in the training plan for the Stratford Marathon the volume of running goes up quite a bit.  And that has coincided with a week of pretty windy weather and a hectic schedule.  As always the strength training has been sacrificed and some of the runs cut a bit short on what was intended.

The plan this week was for a total mileage of around 37 miles - 4 miles easy on Tuesday (😀 - that went to plan), then 7 miles tempo on Thursday (😐 - only time for 4 miles, but did run it at interval pace rather than tempo pace).  Saturday morning was very windy with gusts of 53 mph.  And because of that Parkrun was cancelled because of the danger of branches coming off trees 😥.  The plan said 8 miles easy on Saturday which is possible if you do parkrun then one of the local loops which is about 5 miles but there isn't a convenient  mile loop.  I spent most of the day watching the weather forecast and waiting for the wind to drop which it did for a couple of hours so managed to get out for a bit.  

Sunday's plan was 18 miles but again windy, cold and hailstones thrown in 😧.  By the time the watch said 16 miles I'd had enough of being blown around so headed home instead of repeating a two mile loop.  Standing under the hot shower after being out was lovely.

Strength training though was well below what was planned with several sessions missed 😖 because of extra Scout meetings in the evenings.

This week's stats:

Miles: 30.78
Elevation gained: 446m
LeJog: 254.8 (just passed Hereford)