fairweatherrunner

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Tag Archives: marathon training


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I hate long runs!

I have been thinking recently about how I feel now that Spring Marathons are in full swing and that I have pulled out of the Milton Keynes Marathon.

I am full of admiration for everyone who has made it through marathon training this winter. The weather has been foul and the cold has certainly contributed to some of my niggles.  How anyone finished a 20(+) mile run in the sleet this March with the added wind chill is amazing.  I didn’t even manage to get out for one lap of my 20 mile race let alone 5!

I am a little envious of everyone’s successes so far and that wonderful feeling of achievement that many friends will get when they complete their marathons over the next few weeks. It all takes hard work and putting the hours in on long runs. It was trying to fast forward and catch up my long run distance after injury that made me admit I was over doing it and postpone my marathon number 2.

I am tempted looking at other marathons later this year or for next and still hold ambitions of improving my marathon time but I think too much about the ‘whens’ and ‘ifs’ of the training and best timings with other commitments.

So my thoughts always come back to long runs and I have to admit that I just don’t like doing them. I can’t help but think that maybe if I liked them a little more I might not have been so quick to drop out of my marathon training.  I am happy to run 8 or 10 miles (and race a half marathon) but over that and I get a bit of a mental block and dread them before I start.  It was at the 12 mile point (or maybe it’s the magic 2 hour curfew) of a long run when I admitted to myself I was bored, cold and fed up and probably trying to push myself to hard too soon after injury (so got on a bus) and made my decision.

I then had a bit of a running slump week.  I cross trained and went to BMF where the runs are short before picking myself up with thoughts of shorter races.  I did manage to force myself out for a long run last weekend because the odd long run is still a necessary evil for half marathon training.  However even with a pre planned 12 mile route my legs somehow brought me home after 10 miles!  I dragged out another mile looping the block before I had enough muscle aches and pains to justify calling it a day.

Fortunately my recent saviour of my running mojo has been BMF run club.  I’m lucky that BMF Hyde Park is one of the BMF parks that holds a run club for members.  I’ve meant to go ever since I’ve been a member and after 6 or 7 years I finally ran out of excuses! (Dark won’t kill me and being home at 7pm for dinner and bed time for my sons, now 16 and 14, isn’t an issue anymore.)   There I have really enjoyed running some fast intervals.

It’s hard to describe the buzz I get from it which I don’t get from long runs.  I know it’s going to be hard work beforehand but don’t get that feeling of dread.  It’s amazing how you can blast out a km or more at best effort, thinking you’re ‘all-in’ but after 90 seconds recovery bounce off to do it all over again, and again. Running in the dark doesn’t bother me and it’s great to be running at my pace but within a group.  Fortunately both times I have found myself well placed mid-pack where there is the challenge to chase the front-runners and comfort of not being at the back.

The tired feeling after speed intervals is better too!  I sleep so well afer a tough speed session and my muscles feel happily tired rather than being painful and stiff after long runs.  Speed is giving me a spring in my step.  It’s great to find some pace again and my legs are feeling lighter now that I am leaving the slow shuffling heavy legged long slow runs behind me.

Good luck and well done to everyone who has or is about to run a marathon in the next few weeks.  If like me it’s not happening for you either this time, our time will/may come!  Or maybe as with many things in life, each to their own, embrace our differences and maybe admit we are more suited to other distances.


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I have been reviewing the situation

and have made a grown up decision… I am not running my second marathon at Milton Keynes on 6th May this year.

I am just not prepared enough. Several small niggles and silly injuries have made an impact on my mileage since Christmas and although now back into training properly, I realised this week that my plans to increase my long runs in time to be marathon ready are too optimistic.  I was pulled up sharply with ITB pain on Tuesday after my long run this weekend. Too much too soon without a solid base of a couple of months good running behind me. Just comparing recent mileage with my monthly totals in the 4 months before I ran Rutland Marathon last Autumn is enough to show me what’s missing. Cross training has kept up my fitness levels and started to improve my all over strength but neither can help me go from 0 to 30 miles running a week quickly without getting even more injuries.

I will continue with my planned build-up races, dropping back to the 16 mile option at the Hyde Park 20 and look forward to racing the East London Half in April and then move on to some 10K races after that. I will also be continuing with my TRX training and plyometric exercises which I’m learning with my PT and really enjoying, especially as I can see the start of some noticeable toning effects!

I suppose I could, having already entered the race and with no deferral option, still go ahead and run it with less training and a get round run-walk strategy. I would however like to go into number 2 marathon at least as well-trained as I was for the first. I’m not such a seasoned marathoner to be able to take part for the ‘fun of it’ or ‘on a whim’ without any impact on my body not to mention the fact it would take a bloody long time!

In addition I now discover that race day is the day before my Son’s first GCSE exam. Not that I’m much use to him revision wise (he’s been educating me about 20th century european history) nor nagging! But there are times, as the parent of a teenager, when you just need to be boringly there, available, in the background, doing nothing much.

Marathon not quit, just postponed.


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Long Runs and Buses

londonbusesbyadam.zenfolio.com

At times my long runs are much less reliable than buses but when I’m marathon training I (usually) manage to do them a bit more often.

Sometimes frequent buses are just what you need when fatigue sets in, it’s getting late, cold, you’re feeling knackered and just want to get home.

That’s what happened to me on Sunday. Thirteen plus miles on my feet and I had just plain had enough.  Trouble was I was at least 3 miles from home.  Stagger on? Walk and take even longer? or phone a friend (OH)?  A that moment a bus came round the corner.  I have never ever been so pleased to see a 295 bus in all my life! (and for my habit of always carrying my oyster card and some cash).  And so I was rescued from deepest Fulham.

After last weekend’s Half Marathon I had gone out on my planned long run.  It turned out to be a step up in mileage too far having had time out with injury and 16 miles was just a bit too much for only my 3rd long run post injury.  Either that or I have thought too much recently about Half Marathon being the perfect distance and my current favourite race.

So I have had to make a few more adjustments along the road towards my marathon.  I will do 16 miles next week and not run the first of my 20 mile races on Sunday as it just feels too soon.  I will save that distance for the week after and maybe again during April.

Top tip for other would-be bus hoppers during long runs.  You can’t stay on the bus too long before you cool down and start to get chilled.  I did get off the bus in traffic nearer home and run (at a much faster pace) most of the last mile home rounding my run up to 14.4 miles.


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Bath Half Marathon

photo (5)

I had a great trip away in Bath with Alma this weekend.  Bath is a lovely city and the Half Marathon was well organised and friendly. It’s a mass participation event that didn’t feel too big and the race is run on wide roads which were not over congested. It’s not a hilly or undulating course but there are some changes in gradient, probably best described as ’Bath flat!’

Our experience was enhanced by the fact that we were staying in a hotel within walking distance from the station and only 5 minutes from the race start. There are not many race mornings when there is no rude early alarm and you can be sitting under a duvet, drinking tea and eating breakfast whilst watching the TV at 8.30 in the morning.

In the days before the race I was chewing over what sort of pace to run at. What pace could I realistically keep up for 13 miles? I knew because of injury and only 2 weeks training with a longest run of 10 miles (longest since my marathon in November! Tut Tut) that PB pace was out of the question (could maybe manage 3 or 4 miles at that!)  So was matching recent HM paces and even sub 2 (that might get me to half way?). I also considered marathon pace, whatever that should be, as this was really a training run.

In the end I decided to stop thinking too much and just relax and enjoy it and see how my legs and recently recovered glutes coped with the distance.  So I plugged in my race playlist, started my garmin and pulled my sleeve down over it to cover it up and just ran.  I tried to hold a steady pace which maintained a consistent effort, which was not too easy but also not enough to make me breathless or raise my heart rate which I felt I could keep up for the whole race.

When I downloaded my splits last night I was rather proud of my consistent pacing.  I don’t think I could have done any better watching my Garmin all the way round.  Being free just to run and take in the course without worrying about pace and time was wonderful.

bath half

 

 


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The thing about marathon training

The thing about marathon training is that just getting through to the end of the training plan is as good a mental preparation for the race itself than anything else I can think of.  What with injuries, bad weather, colds and flu to mention but a few and I haven’t started on the list of things day-to-day life can throw in our way.

I’ve had to be adaptive, realistic and strong to keep going with strength work and cross training (I nearly came to like spinning) and not give up and sulk.  Fortunately Milton Keynes marathon is a few weeks after many of the other marathons so I have a little more time than others to play with.  I have jumped from week 6 of 16 week plan A, to week 2 of 12 week plan B and after 3 weeks off running, nursing my painful piriformis (backside) I’m back!

I missed a Half Marathon the week before last and was getting anxious about the Bath Half Marathon next weekend.  However I’ve built up my mileage over the past 10 days and managed a good steady 10 miles on Sunday so Bath is on, albeit with a new game plan, (based on 2 weeks training and a 10 mile longest run), to get round and enjoy it rather than chasing a PB.


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End of Janathon.

Janathon is over for another year, or until Juneathon anyway. January hasn’t been one of my best running months with a few minor injuries and a cold. However I’m treating the end of Janathon as a beginning not an end.  I’m using it as a starting point for the serious part of my marathon training, getting stronger and more flexible and losing a few pounds.

I might have missed a weeks training and a long run this week but am staying chilled. I still have 3 months to go before my marathon and did run 100 miles in January so I’m far from lost.  However my first training race, a Half Marathon in 2 weeks won’t be at record-breaking pace.

I’m also putting my self challenge down on paper, (or screen). My goal is to be 9 stone, or less, by the end of April and improve on my speed mile pace of about 7.40 min/mile.  (ran a few weeks ago with Louise and probably near enough to my current best effort mile to be a good starting point).

As I’ve still got a bit of pain in my Glutes when running I decided not to run before my 10k with Alma this weekend. So no delayed long run to crank up my Janathon mileage on the last day for me.

Instead I took myself off for a swim. Its been at least a year since I last swam (apart from on holiday) so it’s just as well I checked my kit bag because the costume in there was a wee bit small! I eventually found a more appropriate size but I’m sure that one has been shrunk in the wash too! My favourite goggles were also missing having been used and lost by my one of my sons at school (Note to self… next pair need to be much more pink) but I managed with a foggy pair of theirs.

Janathon day 31. 50 lengths, 1km swum. All breast stroke (really should be more confident and practice my front crawl) feeling good to be back in the water after so long.


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Mixing it up

This Janathon has not gone as well for me as the last two. I’ve not run as many miles and for the first time I’ve not run at all on some days. This is partly due to a silly rib injury, the snow and ice, recently having a cold and now a bit of a glute muscle pull. Excuses aside, the main reason is I’m in a rut. My running is feeling stale, plodding out the same old routes at ever decreasing speeds and coasting along in my comfort zone at BMF.

I’ve enjoyed running with friends and have entered plenty of races to have goals and outings to look forward to and keep up my motivation. However I need to change my exercise routine and think a bit smarter about training for my next marathon. I’m also struggling to shift a half stone of excess weight and know that unless I challenge my body with something different and push myself a bit it’s not going to be easy to lose.

I thought about re-joining the gym or getting a personalised running program but in the end I decided to get some 1 on 1 PT sessions where I get pushed and have no opportunities to slack off and go get a coffee. We are going to work on my strength and flexibility, which hopefully along with loosing a few pounds will help me get faster. We’re also going to have a look at my diet and see if I need to make any changes. I know I could do with some help for nutrition when training because I either under eat trying to diet, so can’t run well, or overdo the carb loading and gain weight. (Oops time to write my food diary and own up to all those glasses of wine!)

Janathon day 29. PT session. 1 hour including plyometric exercises and TRX, with no hiding, resting, or excuses, definitely being moved out of my comfort zone.


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More snow excuses

More snowy excuses today.

It was snowing when I got up and it continued all day. I convinced myself that a run on the roads and pavements wasn’t possible so decided on a snowy walk to the park where I could for Janathon’s sake run a lap of the sports pitch. I even manged to drag my sons away from the Xbox to join me so they made it out the house today.

Yes, in hind sight I probably could have managed a run as pavements on the main routes were OK and it was fine running on the snow on the sports pitch. I did feel like running more laps after my first but having dragged the boys out they were getting cold standing still (too many memories of enforced laps of that field with school!) so I used them as an excuse not to carry on.

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Feeling guilty about my lack of running due to the snow over the past few days I consoled myself that I’m not too far off my marathon plan for week 1…

 

marathon plan week 1

Janathon day 20, 2.5 mile walk including a 0.33 mile run around a field.

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Ouch

I planned to do my marathon long run today. With all the fuss about the weather forecast for this weekend I thought 9 miles plus on Saturday or Sunday might be difficult so I sensibly decided get it in the bag today while doing some nifty work, housework and ironing pile avoidance.

However I failed to take into account the 200 squats I did yesterday at BMF. I had quite achy legs and glutes this morning but assumed the run would help loosen my muscles up and help get over the DOMS.   I set off mid morning, starting very slowly as I tried to warm up and loosen my legs. However it was so cold that my legs never warmed up and my muscles got stiffer and more painful. I tried to run through it thinking that by 3 or 4 miles I would feel fine but when I stopped to crouch down and take a photo of birds on the frozen Serpentine I had trouble getting up again! At this stage I abandoned my 10 mile plans and waddled home.

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For those of you who have asked, I’m following The Runners World improvers marathon training plan to train for the Milton Keynes Marathon. (RW’s January 2013 issue.)  For the first 3 weeks during Janathon I am making sure that in running every day I at least cover the plan.  I will then follow it closely, give or take.  It’s a 16 week plan, assuming base mileage of 25-30 per week and starts at 25 miles a week building up to 50 miles at peak.  I also find the Runners World online smart coach very useful for giving target paces for speed intervals and long runs based on past race times or target marathon time.

Janathon day 17.   7.65 miles at long slow run pace (less some)!


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Speed session with a sloth*

* I don’t know the correct term to describe an ex sloth turned ultra runner.

I had a great run this morning. I even started before 10am (just).

Louise (abradypus) is training for an ultra marathon and is sensibly grabbing friends for company on some of her many runs. She asked if I’d like to do a speed session with her. I agreed as these sort of sessions are hell (or never done) on your own but are great marathon training. Plus it’s always good to have company and the best way to get me out the door!

We are fairly similarly paced and ran most of Rutland Marathon and some build up races together last autumn. Up to now Louise has had the edge on endurance and me on speed. However with all the fantastic training and miles she has done recently I was quite ready to be beaten on both and to have to pull the ‘old lady card’ I have up my sleeve! Fortunately we were both as ready as each other for a mini breather after every 2 laps and our ability to talk was fairly well matched at each pace.

The plan was 10 mins at 10.00, 9.30, 9.00, 8,30, 8.00 and 7.30m/mile pace. I have a good loop in Hyde Park which is roughly a mile so we agreed to try 1 mile at each pace. I think we did quite well…

progressions

It’s funny how that even with us running side by side our Garmins still gave slightly different paces, of course the fastest pace is right!

Janathon day 15, 6 miles. Janathon total 66 miles run.

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