It's no secret that I'm pretty nervous about running the London Marathon. I'm not a fast runner and as a result I'm not that confident when it comes to races. It can be demoralising when everyone around you seems to be taking about 3:30 marathons or under and you know you'll struggle to do it in 4:30. But then again, someone who's expecting 5:30 might want to throttle me.
Going to the Expo and registration at the Excel centre was a chance to see just a handful of the runners who will be pounding pavements with me on Sunday, but rather than make me unsettled to be in the presence of those more dedicated, hardcore and fit than me, it made me feel more prepared.
Everywhere there were stands selling things - kit, trainers, massage equipment, massages, energy gels etc. I realised that on the whole I've put myself in the best possible position with my training. My Dad has run quite a few marathons, so I have him to got to for advice. I have a personal trainer (who ran the Brighton marathon last week) and has worked with me for almost 9 months, nagging me about my nutrition, stretching and giving me the tools to look after myself. Because of my personal trainer, new fangled gadgets on sale at the Expo like the Magic Stick, The Grid and the Trigger Point kit are all well known to me already. My trainer also encouraged me to start experimenting with energy gels early on, so I'm all prepared on that front too with a massive stock of Cliff Shot Bloks and Gu gels. And I even have a sports massage every fortnight which has helped look after the increasing stiffness in my legs, which find it difficult to keep any decent equilibrium when I'm running on them at least 4 to 5 times a week.
I have also tried as best as I could to stick to my schedule - of course I missed some sessions due to work, tiredness or injury, but I altered my habits quite drastically to squeeze the runs in - not drinking, not going out on Saturday nights, running home from work and forgoing socialising etc. I only missed on long run during the whole 14 week training schedule, and that was because I was limping from a tendon problem.
Perhaps I'm nervous because I know I've prepared. I've done everything I can do. Which just leaves me to accept that on the day, if anything goes wrong, I can't beat myself up about it. But that might be harder to do than training to run this thing.
Showing posts with label Training Plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Training Plan. Show all posts
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Hurt
I'm a bit worried about this marathon lark right now. On Thursday I flew out to New York, and that night I walked around the streets of Manhattan with my parents in a pair of high heels. Not super high heels - a 1 1/2 inch pair.
The next day I set off on a 6 mile run around Central Park and my ankle was hurting - not the ankle per se, but the muscles around it felt uber tight, especially on hills. I put this down to the cold weather. When I got to my hotel the pain in my ankle got worse and my movement was restricted, the pain seemed to come from my lower calf muscles or worse...my achilles tendon.
I've stayed off exercise for a few days, missing my first EVER long run on a Sunday (and what was due to be my last long LSD run to boot. I have also been massaging my leg / ankle - not too much, but enough to alleviate some of the discomfort - I got a bit carried away with buying every massage tool known to runners-kind whilst away. It feels a lot better, but the area is still super tender and prone to sharp bursts of pain. I am very worried that if this continues running this marathon will be difficult to impossible.
The next day I set off on a 6 mile run around Central Park and my ankle was hurting - not the ankle per se, but the muscles around it felt uber tight, especially on hills. I put this down to the cold weather. When I got to my hotel the pain in my ankle got worse and my movement was restricted, the pain seemed to come from my lower calf muscles or worse...my achilles tendon.
I've stayed off exercise for a few days, missing my first EVER long run on a Sunday (and what was due to be my last long LSD run to boot. I have also been massaging my leg / ankle - not too much, but enough to alleviate some of the discomfort - I got a bit carried away with buying every massage tool known to runners-kind whilst away. It feels a lot better, but the area is still super tender and prone to sharp bursts of pain. I am very worried that if this continues running this marathon will be difficult to impossible.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
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?
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?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The Marathon Training Begins
Well, the New Year is upon us and I have to start really running if I'm going to get round a marathon course without any tantrums.
The London Marathon is on Sunday 17th of April, so I have 14 weeks to train from tomorrow. I can run 10 miles pretty comfortably with my current standard of fitness and run 5 - 8 miles home from work once a week at least.
I have written out my marathon training on a calendar - I always find it easier to assess what is in front of me if I have to physically write it down. On the whole it doesn't look too bad. The long runs on a Sunday will be a bit of a bugger just with regards to the number of hours they'll eat of my weekend, but hopefully I can get in the groove of a 2 or 3 hour run and use that time to think and reflect, activities I currently do in bed. I'm hoping the time shouldn't be too hard, after all I do run for about 90 minutes on my longer runs at present without any real difficulty.
The other thing I'm slightly nervous about is the speed training portion - in particular how I determine I've covered 800 metres and now have 400 metres to cool down before I start again? I've lost my Garmin forerunner 50, so I'm using a Nike GPS app for my iPhone, but I can't see the distance as I run. I could go to a running track, but I don't fancy running 10 miles in a circle, or indoors on a running machine. Anyone have any tips?
The London Marathon is on Sunday 17th of April, so I have 14 weeks to train from tomorrow. I can run 10 miles pretty comfortably with my current standard of fitness and run 5 - 8 miles home from work once a week at least.
I have written out my marathon training on a calendar - I always find it easier to assess what is in front of me if I have to physically write it down. On the whole it doesn't look too bad. The long runs on a Sunday will be a bit of a bugger just with regards to the number of hours they'll eat of my weekend, but hopefully I can get in the groove of a 2 or 3 hour run and use that time to think and reflect, activities I currently do in bed. I'm hoping the time shouldn't be too hard, after all I do run for about 90 minutes on my longer runs at present without any real difficulty.
The other thing I'm slightly nervous about is the speed training portion - in particular how I determine I've covered 800 metres and now have 400 metres to cool down before I start again? I've lost my Garmin forerunner 50, so I'm using a Nike GPS app for my iPhone, but I can't see the distance as I run. I could go to a running track, but I don't fancy running 10 miles in a circle, or indoors on a running machine. Anyone have any tips?
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