21 mile jaunt

Blue sky, sunshine, around 15C with a refreshing breeze. Running conditions don't really get much better than this. Spirits were high and I was feeling on form for taking on the longest training run I would do before the race.

A group of us headed off at 9:30 from Roehampton Gate in Richmond Park, on a course which would take us on a long and, in places, hilly but picturesque route through two parks and along a stretch of the Thames. It was partly an out and back route, something I've tried to avoid on long runs in an attempt to keep things fresh. It didn't matter and, at times, it helped the mind visualise and prepare for what was ahead, so long as you hadn't depreciated the size of the hills and distances in the miles in between.

It was the first time, probably since school cross-country, that I'd run in a group. The longer training runs, in preparation for New York, had been in the company of my wife, cycling alongside. This time round, I don't have that luxury, so the group was a welcome break from the monotony of the long solo runs I'd completed in the weeks before. And I'm not 100% sure I would have run the whole distance if it hadn't been for the people around me.

After 16 miles, not being physically or mentally used to such long distances, the psychological battle began. Strangely, my pace had quickened. I checked my watch several times around the 15-17 mile distance, to discover we had started to clock at 8 min/mile pace. We'd set out at just over 9. At some point, my legs had decided they either wanted this to be over as quickly as possible or to stop and that an in between state of a slow jog was unacceptable. Of course, this took it's toll and I could feel my heart rate rising and my legs getting seemingly heavier. My mind eventually won the battle over the legs as I managed to slow the pace down to around the 8:30 min/mile mark for the remaining 4 miles. I certainly wasn't prepared for that, legs wanting to stop yes, legs wanting to go faster than I knew was sensible, well I'm glad I learnt that one now and not on race day.

Good week

Bouncing back after losing the best part of 3 weeks to illness, I've managed to run 4 times this week already and still planning on putting in a steady 20 mile run on Sunday. I haven't completed anything extraordinarily long or quick, purposefully easing back into it gently to try and avoid injury. Easing back in is mentally tough. Having been out for a stretch, all your mind wants to do is make up for lost time and prove to yourself that you haven't lost power and fitness, despite the break. Of course, your body will have declined a little over this time, so exercise restraint.

That said, I did get a circuit PB of 21:13 on the local 5k loop next to our house. It's quite a hilly route, more so than the regular 5k I've been running on Tuesday lunchtimes at work. On a good day, I reckon I might be able to crack the 20 minute barrier on this route, whether I want to attempt that in the run up to the marathon is another matter. I'll probably leave it for now.

Out of interest, I've pulled together some data to show the average distance covered per week, by month. I'm not decided on what is the best data to display, but I quite liked this one as it's easy to spot a trend and explain away the dips. I began to wind up training in November and December, although took a break over Christmas. I missed a long run in February, due to skiing, which made for a slight dip after January's faultless month. And the toll of the recent illness can be seen in March.

Keeping positive

The last few weeks have been tough. Cold, virus, cold again. It's bad luck, but the support and constant stream of donations coming through is a real motivator and reminds me of why I'm doing this.

Realistically, I've got to reassess my target time and am probably not looking at breaking 4 hours, but you never know how I might fare on the day. For one, I'm sure the start can't possibly be as hard as New York. No 5am coach to Statten Island followed by a 5 hour wait, sitting on a cold pavement (sidewalk), waiting for the off.

With 5 training weekends to go until the big day, theory says I need to clock up a couple of 18+ mile runs in the next 3-4, to allow me to taper in the final 2-3 weeks. Not sure what the theory is when you've not much to taper from, but I'll ignore that for now. So I plan on putting in a 20 mile run next Sunday, and I'm skiing the week after, so I'll miss that one. The 5th April is the Kingston Breakfast Run, a flat and fast 16M race along the banks of the Thames, very popular with London Marathoners wanting to get a last practice race under their belt.

Depending on what the legs feel like after that, I may try and squeeze in a 22 miler on the 12th and then ease off a little for a couple of weeks. One thing I felt last time was that I eased off too dramatically, and my legs weren't feeling race fit on the day. So I'm going to try to keep knocking out a couple of 5-10k runs in the closing stages, to keep them warm.

Getting back on the road

I've all but seen the back of the virus and now looking forward to kicking off the training again. As suspected, you come out of something like this feeling weakened and disappointed to have interrupted an otherwise promising training schedule. But I'm not disheartened.

The forced rest has allowed the shin splints to repair themselves and, despite slight cardio-vascular fatigue, physically, I'm feeling solid and niggle free. Mentally, having already got a decent 16 miler under my belt, and with 4.5 weeks of training left before tapering, I'm confident of achieving my goal of completing a near marathon pace 22 mile run in training.

I'm tempted to hold off one more day before starting again, just to be sure I'm clear, but I'll see how I feel this evening and perhaps I'll be able to take on a gentle 3-4k.

Tackling a virus

Training was all going well, then I got a cold, plenty of sneezing and the like. Not suspecting that anything untoward, I ploughed on with training, albeit at a slightly reduced level of intensity, but nevertheless completing nearly 12 miles on my Sunday run.

Come Monday, the sneezes had stopped, I didn't feel 100% but felt well enough to go out for a gentle jog. 4k later I had to call it a day, I was pooped. I passed on my regular Tuesday lunchtime run with the folks from work for the first time in weeks, barely able to scale the stairs without losing breath.

Wednesday morning, nothing had improved and I figured it should have, so I took myself to the doctor's. I got a veiled ticking off for not listening to my body and trying to run my way through it and instructed that the only cure was complete rest. So that's what I've been up to for the last few days, sleeping mainly and not even contemplating going for a run.

It's just reinforced that when you're training for months for a big event, you have to factor in something going wrong. If you start out assuming you will be able to train week in week out, you'll be disappointed. In 4-6 months of preparation, you will miss some sessions, some will be planned/reduced, due to the constraints of a holiday for example, others won't be planned and will be because of injury or illness of some kind. It's the facts. The odds are stacked against you, an average person will have 2 colds per year, I think the trick is to not let it get you down and to keep your goals realistic. So much for that sub-3:00 marathon then...;-)