London Marathon Training
Week 1, Day 2
All good marathon training advice seems to suggest that it’s not a bad idea to incorporate some hill work or speed sessions into your weekly schedule so, based on that, I decided to give it a go tonight.
I know London is more or less flat all the way round but because I have the Hastings Half Marathon to contend with as well I figured I’d need to try to at least get used to some inclines, given that the beast that is Hastings has nine miles of the buggers!
I’m only doing Hastings because my daughter attends university there, and after doing it last year I swore never again but, wanting to settle a score with it, I thought I’d tackle it one more time. Why could she not have gone somewhere flat, like Holland?
Anyway, I’m lucky enough to live beside the Antrim Road which is a steady rise from my house up to the roundabout at the top and which replicates the notorious Harley Shute Road and Queensway sections in Hastings. The idea was to run up, sprint back down as many times as I could inside the designated 30 minute session.
I managed two loops before getting bored. I know, I know but it’s a start.
I was pretty pleased with my efforts, I tackled the rise head on, trying to get up it as fast as I could and using my arms to help me along. Then, on the ‘descent’, I let my legs go loose to recover a little. I was well aware that this early pace would come back to bite me on the arse in the second part of the run.
On the second trip back down the road I thought I’d just carry on towards the town centre before turning back for home and the anticipated payback for my earlier efforts duly hit. Not massively so, granted, but enough to slow me right down and to inwardly curse the kind, considerate motorists waving me across the road rather than give me an excuse to stop for a few blissful seconds. I do appreciate it, folks, just not tonight!
But, overall, I was happy with tonight. It was a nice introduction to hill work and I’ll learn from the experience.
London Marathon Training
Week 1 – 4.3 miles (2 runs)
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 