London Marathon Training
Week 7, Day 4
Seven weeks down, nine to go. Almost at the halfway point and this has been the toughest week yet.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a week emotionally, mostly for reasons far removed from my training – although the title of this blog is a direct reference to running (it’s a line from an Arcade Fire song, fact fans).
You’ll recall yesterday that I set my second best parkrun time. I came away from that feeling pleased with myself, and then eagerly awaited the pictures going up on the event Facebook page. Surely, I thought, I’m getting faster therefore I must be getting a bit trimmer and maybe my pictures wouldn’t be as awful as they usually are.
Wrong! They were worse. Absolutely horrific. Facial expressions are one thing, I get that, no-one looks good running, but it was the rest of me. Bloody hell, talk about a rude awakening! I’ve never seen worse.
The net effect of that? I’m running in the dark again, wearing dark clothes and choosing routes that are likely to be as people free as possible.
I was supposed to go for my run today in the morning – it was scheduled to be 11.5 miles – with the purpose of getting it over and done with to allow my legs time to recover all day so that I’ll get a decent nights sleep.
In order to do that in the dark I need to get up really early, have my breakfast, allow it to settle and then head out. So, this morning, I did get up suitably early but after feeding the cat and having something to eat I felt really tired so went back to bed intending to snooze for half-an-hour or so.
Yeah, right. It was almost midday when I finally woke from my slumber. Obviously much too bright and much too busy to even comprehend going out for a run.
That left the only option to wait until the evening. Therefore, come 5:30pm off I went to tackle my 11.5 miles. Damn me and my insecurities.
Yesterday was such a busy day, I amassed over 23,000 steps, so my legs felt heavy all day and I didn’t expect much from my run – and I didn’t get much either.
Yes, I did it, all 11.5 miles of it, but I didn’t enjoy it. It was a battle throughout but it was a battle I simply had to win.
My pace wasn’t awful. It wasn’t my quickest either but was more or less what I expected it to be, if not what I would have liked it to be. It kept me on marathon target time so I can’t really grumble. It was just a slog throughout, that was all.
But it also served a purpose. It was more miles in my legs, it meant I was keeping up with my training plan and it gave me another chance to fine tune my fuelling strategy (no cramp again, folks!).
I do know that on another day, without legs that weren’t already knackered, I could have gone quicker, so that’s reassuring.
Speaking of my legs, tonight was the first time this year I’ve resorted to an Epsom Salts bath after my run. They felt really heavy and my feet were especially sore, although the bath and some stretching seems to have done the trick. That’s to be expected from this point forward anyway.
Anyway, bring on week eight …… eek!
London Marathon Training (111.9 miles – 26 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 – 17.7 miles (4 runs; average 4.4 miles per run)
Week 4 – 18.8 miles (4 runs; average 4.7 miles per run)
Week 5 – 14.9 miles (4 runs; average 3.7 miles per run)
Week 6 – 18.7 miles (4 runs; average 4.7 miles per run)
Week 7 – 20.3 miles (4 runs; average 5.1 miles per run)
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 