London Marathon Training
Week 8, Day 1
Do you ever get one of those runs when everything goes right? I just have!
What makes it even more remarkable is that it was the last thing I expected. I wasn’t sure whether to go to the club tonight, my feet – or rather the soles of them, my right in particular – felt painful walking. Not enough to stop me but enough to make me wonder how they’d cope running.
And even if I did go, I was pretty sure I’d drop back to the 30-minute group just to be on safe side.
So what did I do? I went with the 45s. Typical. Most of my usual group went with the 45s, so that helped make my decision for me. At least I knew if I was struggling I’d be amongst friends.
But, quite the opposite, I didn’t struggle. I thoroughly enjoyed that tonight. It was speedy – by far the fastest Monday night run yet since joining the club – and, as you can see from the profile, quite hilly too.
We tackled the Old Galgorm Road which is a beast of a climb, and I flew up it. I made the decision to sprint it, and surprised myself getting to the top with my lungs still intact. It was my first time running it, it always gave me enough trouble walking it so I was absolutely delighted to have run up it and run up it well. My weekly hill sessions are paying off, they must be.
There were other climbs, too, and I tackled each of them head on as well. I was conscious that the rest of the group might think I was showing off (damn my insecurities) but I needed to test myself given that there’s a month to go until Hastings, and explained to some of them why I was pushing on ahead at the climbs.
Pace wise, it was on a par with the 60-minute group apparently so maybe, just maybe, I’ll give that a go soon, probably on the next step-up week. I really did surprise myself tonight.
Indeed, such was the time, I knew I was in with a real shout of breaking my 5-mile PB – which has stood since November 2015 – so I ran the rest of the way home. Annoyingly I was only a matter of seconds outside it but I’m getting closer and closer to each PB, some of these weeks most of them will come crashing down.
In other news, I’ve entered the Spar Craic 10k on St. Patrick’s Day and although it’s only a couple of days before the Hastings Half I’m confident in my own fitness now to be able to manage both.
And speaking of 10k, I finally got my official time for the Winter Run, and it turns out to be two minutes quicker than I thought it was, a very pleasant surprise indeed.
Not a bad old start to week eight.
London Marathon Training (116.9 miles – 27 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)
Week 8 – 5 miles (1 run; average 5.0 miles per run)
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 