Jo’s Marathon Blog – Week 4 (11th-17th July)

A good, good week of training 🙂

As Run Leader of a Tuesday evening running group, my Tuesday sessions are no more than 2 miles helping beginners usually, and yet my plan is advising 40 minute run sessions alternating between “steady” and “speedy”, so I knew that this could be a potential hiccup in my plan. Thankfully, my incredibly wonderful hubby has solved it by helping to mark all the runners back in at the end of our Tuesday session, answering queries on my behalf and ushering me away to start my own run whilst he packs up. If I get on and run another 2-3 miles in (20-30 minutes) at my own speed, Simon can pick me up on his way home and I get to put another big red tick on my training calendar!

TIP: Mark your sessions off as you do them… the sense of achievement is great and will also make you think twice about dropping a session!

Another session of interval training followed on Wednesday (not so good this time as I was so tired and it was so hot, but I still got out and did it 🙂 ), and then a tough hilly 6 miler on Thursday. These back-to-back runs are the ones that take so much more effort but ultimately make you a much stronger runner.

My friend Andy trained for a marathon this year using the theory that back-to-back runs of maybe 10, 12 and 8 miles were more beneficial (and easier to recover from) than short runs with a long one thrown in once every few weeks instead, and the theory is very sound. I was toying with the idea of using this technique myself, but it is better for someone who has already done a marathon to be honest, as what it DOESN’T give you is the reassurance that you can do that distance beforehand, as the longest run you do in training is actually about 15 miles! Psychologically I didn’t think this was a good idea for me!

A hard 6 mile hill run with the IOWRRs followed on Thursday, which left me very tight and achy, but a gentle 40 miler with my pals at the end of Friday soon put me right, and flushed all the lactic acid from my muscles.

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On Sunday my plan suggested a 10 mile run (if I’d been following this religiously it would have been my first 10 miler – but as I have done 10 or 11 every Sunday for 4 weeks I was feeling pretty relaxed about it!). The IOWRRs were doing a trial run of next week’s “St George’s 10” race around Chillerton, so we pootled out to join them at 9.30am whilst the worse heat of the day was yet to come and the sky was overcast. Boy was it hot though! I had no running buddies pre-arranged, so anticipated a lonely and tough run with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company (never good!), but as it turns out I was in talking distance to other runners the whole way round – which turned out to be a blessing.

The first few miles (up Nunnery Lane in the first mile!) were good and I felt strong. Running without my mates was weird but I just focused on the job in hand, and was touched by a few complimentary comments from fellow runners about my pacing. The 1.5 mile climb up through Chillerton was the first time I had to walk for a spell, but it was enough to get my heart-rate sensible and breathing right so that I could run again, and I also caught up with the others again so I didn’t feel I lost anything as a result.  The last 4 miles were hard work. It was a steady plod but I did have to walk on some of the hillier sections, but thankfully I always managed to catch back up with the others of my pace. I caught sight of my Garmin at one point, and was actually shocked at the time it said – how could I have been so quick when it felt so hard?! I then panicked and realised that I would be clock-watching the rest of the way as I was actually on target for a 10 mile PB, so I changed the read-out to show distance only, and kept plodding on.

By now the sweat was dripping off me and every hill was like a mountain. A fellow runner told me, at mile 8, that I was keeping her going, and from this point I actually started to feel better and stronger again. Marvel Lane was manageable, and as we approached the ascent my friends and I have dubbed “Cardiac Hill” in the last mile, I knew the end was in sight. I walked up most of cardiac hill, but as I’m a quick walker I don’t think this affected my speed at all! The last stretch back down to the school was AWESOME and I gave it all I had. It was only afterwards, when I sat with the others on the grass to await the last few runners (what? I wasn’t the last runner to finish?! weird!) that I looked at my watch, and it was a 10 mile PB by almost 2 minutes!!!!

Whether or not I can actually run a whole marathon I won’t know for a few more months, but I can already see and feel a difference in my running since upping my Sunday mileage and doing the mid-week speed & hill sessions. Bring it on!!! 🙂