London Marathon Training
Week 13, Day 1
Let’s just forget about last week. I only managed one run, and totally lost it mentally after that.
I bottled my long Sunday run, it was a scheduled 17.5 miles but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for it at all. I knew that even doing a shorter run wouldn’t be good enough for me, it was 17.5 or nothing. Not logical, I know, but since when did I ever heed logic?
But that’s behind me, nothing I can do about it now. Maybe a week off wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Onto this week, back to Monday night with the club. Possibly that’s what was missing last week, who knows?
I decided to go with the 45s this week, mainly because I’d done largely sod all since Friday so needed to claw back a little of what I missed.
It was tough. It was warm, which didn’t help, and perhaps my inactivity meant I was a little out of shape or practice. It was also fast, I think my fastest ever outing with the club.
However, that was good, really good. Why? Because I only went and set a new 5k PB in the process, taking nine seconds off my previous best time that had haunted and taunted me since November 2015.
Granted it wasn’t continuous, it never is given the nature of running alongside roads and having to cross etc. but I don’t care, I’m taking it.
I knew it was a possibility with 3km gone after each kilometre came in progressively faster than the one that had preceeded it.
It was also handy that the route took me around the industrial estate and the dual carriageway, a route I train on every week so I knew the lay of the land, what was coming, how to pace myself and so on.
With four km gone I knew it was a real possibility but I still had work to do, so after telling the group leader about it she encouraged me to sprint on ahead of the bunch.
I’ll admit now that if I was on my own I wouldn’t have done it, there was a general incline at this point on a section I usually take slowly, but knowing everyone was behind me I dug deep and dredged up every last ounce of energy I had.
Never have I been so glad to feel the buzz on my wrist as the distance thankfully ticked over to 5km. But I had done it. That last kilometre was amongst my fastest ever.
That left me drained for the remainder of the run so I dropped right to the back of the pack, but I wasn’t that worried. I had achieved my objective for the evening. I hadn’t set out with that in mind but once it became a real possibility I went for it.
So what to do for the rest of the week? Do I try to fit in my missed long run, or just do slightly longer runs than normal to make up the missing miles ahead of Sunday’s final longest run before tapering kicks in?
I guess I’ll just play it by ear. I could alter my schedule slightly, and do that 17.5 on Wednesday, for example, and then the 19 or 20 the following Wednesday. In the grand scheme of things a few days here and there won’t make much of a difference.
One thing’s for sure, it’ll not be anywhere near as fast as tonight!
If you’ve enjoyed following my progress so far could I be so bold as to ask you if you’d consider making a donation to my chosen London Marathon charity this year – Asthma UK? No amount is too small, and all donations are received with such heartfelt thanks. My fundraising page can be found here. Thank-you so much.
London Marathon Training (208 miles – 42 runs)
Week 1 – 12.2 miles (4 runs; average 3.1 miles per run)
Week 2 – 9.3 miles (2 runs; average 4.7 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 – 23.7 miles (4 runs; average 5.9 miles per run)
Week 9 – 18 miles (3 runs; average 6 miles per run)
Week 10 – 21.9 miles (3 runs; average 7.3 miles per run)
Week 11 – 24.6 miles (4 runs; average 6.2 miles per run)
Week 12 – 3.1 miles (1 run; average 3.1 miles per run)
Week 13 – 4 miles (1 run; average 4 miles per run)
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 