Hill start!

London Marathon Training
Week 3, Day 2

If it’s a midweek run that must mean hill work, mostly in preparation for the Hastings Half Marathon in March.

Ok, I’ll not be doing anything coming close to the steepness you’ll find in trails or anything daft like that but there is a section during the course that rises steadily to over 100ft so it’s clearly something I need to work on.

A quick bit of route plotting before I set out today revealed that running up the Toome Road would offer something close to that so that’s where I decided I’d start today’s run, a total 50 minutes according to my plan.

It’s actually an ideal place for replicating Hastings. A deceptively flat start, then a steady rise gradually getting steeper and, just when you’ve think you’ve conquered it, a little kick as you come onto Carolhill Park and then, as with Hastings, a steady and very welcome drop.

After that I tackled the full length of the Antrim Road, not quite as steep but longer which, again, matches part of the east Sussex course.

I found the going quite tough at the start. I know that’s because I darted up the Toome Road, I was using my arms to help propel me forward but maybe did too much too soon. I recovered on the descent but was then faced with the Antrim Road and whilst I took this slower my earlier efforts started to bite.

Looping around the Park and Ride, I then decided to follow the route of the Ballee Way before going around the playing fields and then up and back down the Wakehurst Road – all totally meaningless if you don’t know Ballymena!!!! But, as you can see from the profile graphic at the top of this page, it rises and falls in almost equal measure so provides quite a good session.

As per usual, I found myself getting stronger the longer the run went on. There’s definitely something psychological at getting those first couple of miles under your belt, regardless of the overall distance.

I’m feeling pretty good about my training so far and whilst each run seems daunting before I set off I am finding that I settle into it fairly quickly. Hopefully this bodes well for the challenges to come.

London Marathon Training (28.6 miles – 8 runs)
Week 1 – 12.2 miles (4 runs; average 3.05 miles per run)
Week 2 – 9.3 miles (2 runs; average 4.65 miles per run)
Week 3 – 7.1 miles (2 runs; average 3.55 miles per run)