TAUNTON HALF MARATHON

I ran the Taunton Half Marathon yesterday. I was a bit nervous beforehand - it's the first time I've run any distance since I hurt my ankle almost 9 days ago. Since then I've rested it, before testing the waters with a personal training session after a week and a quick 3.5 mile jog the next day. Happily, my ankle seemed to play ball, so it was full steam ahead (ish) on Sunday morning. 


My previous half marathon time has hovered around the 2:18 mark - I am a slow runner! That was October (and the October before that), but after 12 weeks of marathon training I've got my half marathon time down to 02:02:05, quite an improvement if I do say so myself, even if now it's screaming at me that my next goal is clearly a sub 2 hour half marathon. My mile average was 09:20, also an improvement on my 10:00 / 10:30 miles that were the norm just 8 weeks ago. 


The marathon course was one I hadn't run before (well, I knew parts of it), but the hill that took up most of mile 10 to 11 was the hardest part and resulted in my slowest mile. At least after that it was pretty much down hill to the finish line. Water was well placed along the route and the sponge stalls were great, especially as it was starting to get quite hot by midday with the sun shining through. 


After the race I went home and iced my ankle for half an hour to minimise any chance of my injury returning and then, of course, my Mum put the ice back in her freezer. Classy. 

ONE MONTH UNTIL THE VIRGIN LONDON MARATHON 2011

Today, I realised on my morning run, is exactly one month away from the Virgin London Marathon. I received my race pack and number in the post yesterday and it's all dawned on me that this is really happening. I will be running 26 miles.


I'm feeling pretty good about it, but am obviously nervous. I tend to not sleep very well before a race and get psychosomatic leg cramps and as a result my race times are rarely as good as my training times. Luckily, I'm not the competitive type and my main aim in any race is normally to finish it rather than smash some PB (although that would be nice). 


I ran my mile repeats at a time of about 8.30 m/m with 400 minutes of recovery today and 2 miles of warming up and cooling down either side. The one remarkable thing about all this marathon training is that I can now run 9 or 10 miles without a second thought - it's simply not a distance that scares me anymore, just an everyday run, a fact I find pretty bonkers and reminds me how far I have come since I started running 3 years ago. 


Regardless of what happens on the day I can say that whilst this training has been exhausting and time consuming, it's really been great to do something that makes me proud of myself - achieving small milestones from a PB distance to getting that little bit faster. So rarely in our day to day lives do we take the time to set ourselves goals or push ourselves, and I'm really glad I've got the chance to do so. Unlike 5k, 10k or half marathon races, you can't really 'wing' a marathon, so you have to stick to your schedule and force yourself outside come rain or shine, and my discipline has also really surprised me. I always thought those people running after work, early in the morning or through the pouring rain were mad, but now I'm one of those people too. 


I wonder if I'll feel like this after the marathon? Or if I'll curse the day I decided to enter?

Speed Work

I'm pretty disciplined with my long runs, and usually I'm good at sticking to my marathon training plan, but I'll admit that one area where I've fallen down has been my speed work. My excuse has been that whilst working it's been difficult to fit in, especially when my run has often doubled as my commute home, and trying to add speedwork into a run down the Fulham Road is never going to be easy when you have to stop, start and weave through crowds.  


Speed is my main downfall. I'm a slow runner, and I'm not great at picking up my pace, but my personal trainer keeps telling me that a 4 hour marathon is within my reach. I'm sceptical about this, but I'd be over the moon if I could make this happen. 

I'm not working this week, so I took time this evening to go out and do some speed work, namely Yasso 800s. I was expecting it to be a bit of a chore, but I actually found it fun, the breaking up a run into smaller chunks really makes all the difference. The workout involved a 2 mile ish warm up and cool down either side and then the Yasso 800s in the middle - running 800 metres in 4 mins and then a 400 metres of slow jogging to take about the same time as it took to complete the 800. I repeated this 6 times and found it if not easy (the pace for me was a challenge but not undoable, I was pushing myself, but not to the limit by any means), then very, er, entertaining. It was probably my most enjoyable 9 miles to date. 


It also helped that I did my speedwork in nice repeating laps around St James Park. I do like a bit of order with my workouts. 

Image from Google Maps. 

Week 6 of London Marathon Training

After a shaky end to the first month of training (oversleeping, aches and pains, general grumbles, legs made of actual lead), I think my body is finally starting to get to grips with the demands made on it. 

Last week I managed my longest ever run to date - 16 miles. Afterwards I was surprisingly okay. I've learned to be much stricter with myself regarding warming down and stretching, and it would seem my body appreciates the effort. I had virtually no leg tiredness or tightness the next day. When I have previously run half marathons my legs protest massively the day after and I slightly hobble. No longer! 

Today I ran 14 miles and it was relatively easy. Of course at times it gets a bit boring (I ran today and last week without music), but physically I was comfortable, not out of breath or experiencing any muscle tightness. I'm not exactly the faster runner in the pack, but I've noticed that hills no longer slow me down quite so much, nor do the last 2 or 3 miles, which I used to run a pretty glacial pace. I can maintain a steady 9.30 - 10.15 minute mile at all times now. I know this is not big whoops to most of you who can run much, much faster, but it's a small victory for me. My half marathon times during my LSD runs on Sunday are now about 2:10. For comparison my actual 1/2 marathon times have been around the 2:18 mark. So...an improvement of sorts.  

My goal is to get my 1/2 marathon time down to as near 2 hours as possible, but I still don't expect to finish the actual marathon much faster than 4:45.

Back To The Routine

After a problem with my psoas muscle and a dodgy neck I am about ready to start running again. One of the great frustrations about exercising is that the body aches and pains that follow you around suddenly become more serious - you might hobble about on a twisted ankle, but it would be foolish to run on it. If, like me, you find that running in the morning is a great way to set you up for the day, then not being able to do it can lead to extreme grumpiness and more. I've noticed that in the last two weeks I've been much more liable to feeling low and depressed than I do usually, and I'm sure not exercising is the reason. 


Still, I saw my personal trainer yesterday and established that I can get back into a routine. I've been doing some horrid exercises to strengthen my glutes which will hopefully stop my legs over working and sort out some of my problems. 


The next stage now is to figure out some short term goals - 10km and half marathons that can challenge me either with different terrain (hills, cough) or speed.