Abingdon Marathon training, week 16

So, it’s all done now. The hay is in the barn, or whatever the saying is. I’ve done 16 weeks’ worth of running, all geared towards one marathon tomorrow morning. And all because I had unfinished business from my first marathon, which I ran a mere six months ago.

What did I do this week?

Monday, Thursday: rest days. I did very little activity at all on Thursday. Rather than this making me feel calm and refreshed, I suddenly seemed to have loads of random pains in my legs and other parts of my body. I told myself this was just normal taper madness, but it’s still alarming when you’re in the midst of it.

Tuesday: One of my usual lunchtime runs – 3.5 miles easy, with 8 x 10 second bursts in the middle. Felt quite good on this run, I think. I always enjoy those little sprints.

Wednesday: My last marathon-paced run. At lunchtime again. 1 mile easy, 2 miles at marathon pace (run on feel rather than trying to keep to any particular pace), then a mile to cool down.

Friday: My training plan said 2 miles easy, or rest. As I was working at home and not doing much other activity, I was feeling a little restless and decided I’d do the 2 miles. Went out for an easy jog around the block. I’m glad I did, as I felt a bit more clear-headed and a bit less agitated afterwards.

Saturday (today): Again, I either had to run 2 miles easy, or rest. I opted for resting, but I did volunteer at parkrun this morning. I scanned barcodes. It was a little chilly, but a beautifully sunny autumn morning. I enjoyed watching the runners come in and admiring the grazing deer (from a safe distance). After a nice coffee with friends, I am now spending the afternoon with my feet up at home.

I won’t deny that there are some pretty frenetic butterflies in my stomach at the moment. I’m working on accepting them as part of the excitement, and calming them with peppermint tea and listening to music.

Miles this week: 9.5

18 hours to go!

2019-07-06 08.50.42 — I’m still terrible at remembering to take photos at the moment. I blame marathon madness. Here’s Bushy Park in July, at the start of my Abingdon training.

Week 15: Emerging from the chrysalis (or something)

So, my first marathon is next weekend. Next weekend!! These past 15 weeks of training have gone by quickly – but also slowly. Not sure how that’s possible, but that’s how it feels.

This is my first real taper week (after not taking it as easy as I should have last week). I did a slow run home from work on Tuesday which was actually really nice. As it’s light again in the evenings now, I was able to run through Bushy Park rather than sticking to the streets. The weather has been sunny and spring-like for much of this week, which is an added bonus.

I feel like I’ve come full circle: park running in the light evenings in late autumn; getting through the grind of a cold, dark winter; and now, finally, emerging at the other end into the light again, as a fully-fledged newbie marathon hopeful. Or something like that.

I managed a morning run before work yesterday. I decided to do some intervals to mix the pace up a little. I aimed to do 10 x 200m, but I had to stop after six because I felt really sick. I guess I’m not used to speed work at the moment. And I probably went too fast. So much for taking it easy! It was a short run overall, though – only 2.5 miles – so hopefully I didn’t do too much damage.

I have a couple of short runs planned for this weekend, and then it’ll be race week. It’s so close…and yet so far away.

9 days to go!

Week 14: Hindsight is a wonderful thing

This week has been busy and stressful. I’ve fit in five runs, and most of them have felt rubbish. After last Saturday’s 20-miler (and then a busy weekend travelling to visit various different family members), I’ve felt tired and achy.

This week was meant to be the first week of tapering for the marathon, and although I have dropped my overall weekly mileage slightly, I don’t feel that it’s been a restful week. Some of this is due to decisions I made about my runs – I think I probably ran some of them too hard.

Tuesday’s run was an easy four miles into Bushy Park and back. For some reason I tried to run a little quicker than easy pace once I’d done a mile warm-up; but my legs wisely stopped me from persisting with that, and I dropped back to an easy pace again. It was a strange evening – lots of dark cloud and barely anyone around, even though there had been loads of runners in the park when I ran on the previous Tuesday evening.

On Thursday I was at home, although I had lots to do. I managed to get out for a 20-minute run around the block in the late morning. I remember feeling okay for this, and I picked up the pace in the second half.

On Friday I had a full-on morning and early afternoon. I was itching for all the various events to be over so that I could get out and run, and blow away the cobwebs. I was free to do this around mid-afternoon. I ran through Bushy again – a 7-mile loop. Once again, I felt tired, but still tried to push the pace. I managed to do marathon pace for one mile in the middle, but then dropped back again. I think, with hindsight, I should have done a shorter and easier run.

This was followed by parkrun on Saturday (my weekly 5k fix). Although I didn’t feel amazing for this run, it wasn’t too bad. I started off conservatively at a 9:10 pace, then did a progressive run, finishing around 8:30-8:10 pace. I felt like there was little power in my legs, but I had no aches or pains and felt reasonably comfortable. My official time was 27:26.

This morning was my final run of Week 14. It is a beautiful day today. It started off chilly, but is now cool and sunny – a perfect spring day and great running weather. Once again, though, even though I wasn’t feeling great, I tried to push myself. I did three miles at an easy pace (in a busy Bushy Park) and then picked it up to slightly faster than marathon pace for six miles. This felt so hard, much harder than it should have; but I forced myself to keep it up. When I finally hit the 9-mile mark, I eased off and jogged/walked two miles home. I felt broken: I had an aching back and hips, and my legs were not happy.

This week my aim was to get in some marathon-pace miles. My thinking was that because I wouldn’t be doing any very long runs, I could do the shorter runs at a quicker pace. And I got this done, but I think I should have listened to my body and kept it all easy. I should also have remembered that stress elsewhere in my life has an impact, and that the body doesn’t distinguish between running-stress and life-stress.

Well, what’s done is done. Next week I’m going to do a proper taper: mostly short, easy runs, and much less overall weekly mileage. I am in real need of some proper recovery now.

14 days to go!

Week 13: Longest run and the taper begins

I finished off my running last week (Week 13 of marathon training) with a very short, easy run on Friday evening, and then a long run on Saturday morning. Friday’s run was good – I felt a lot better than I had on Thursday’s tempo/speed effort.

Saturday’s run involved an early start. I had to be out of bed by about 5.15am so that I’d have enough time to get everything ready and be running by 6am. To say it was difficult to get up is an understatement; but I managed it. I did leave the house five minutes or so later than intended.

My run started off tentatively. I had ankle pain again, and was worried that it was going to get so bad that I’d have to stop running. For the first mile or so I did a walk/run, which seemed to ease up the ankle a bit. Although the pain didn’t go away, it didn’t get worse, so I was able to complete my run.

I stayed in Bushy Park again. It was still very windy, and also rained a bit. I managed to keep up an easy but steady pace. I felt daunted by the distance, as it was going to be my longest run ever; but I tried a tactic of breaking it down into parkruns – so every 5km (3.1 miles), I would mark the time by taking a gel or drinking water, and then start the next 3.1 miles. This seemed to work well.

I got to the parkrun start for 9am, which I was pleased about, as I’d thought I was going to be late. I had done 17 miles at that point. I kept up my pace for (a very windy) parkrun, even increasing to 9-minute miles by the end. I stopped my watch at 20.1 miles, feeling tired but good. I never thought I’d be able to handle doing long runs three weeks in a row (I did 18 miles last weekend and the one before), but marathon training is definitely teaching me a lot about the amazing adaptability of the human body.

2019-03-16 09.50.48 — Me with S, feeling pleased after we both ran 20 miles (separately).

I’m having a couple of days of rest now. My ankle is still sore, but I’m hoping that some stretching and strength exercises will help (and foam rolling, if I can bring myself to do it). I am glad that it’s now taper time and that all my runs from now until the Big Day are shorter ones. I might try and get in some faster paces too, ankle permitting.

20 days to go!!