Boston Marathon Training - 11 weeks to go
Monday 23rd Jan
After a week of hardly training at all, giving my body time to recover from a chest infection, I was excited and eager to get back into training. Being worried that I might have lost fitness, I wanted to take things steady. I decided that I would start to gradually build up the miles this week and not worry about too much about speed.
Today began with a recovery run. I was itching to get going and had to be reminded, by John, to slow down- on several occasions. As we ran along the stretch of the harbourside towards the Lloyds building, a familiar face popped up. You may remember that at a particular low point during my illness, a fox appeared to be keeping an eye on me and (I like to think) checking that I was alright. Well, on my first proper run back since that day, who should appear? None other than my foxy friend (now, clearly I don't know that it was the same fox...but don't spoil the magic for me!). Once again, bold as brass he watched me - clearly checking that I was better - and once satisfied, trotted off again.
A lovely 4 miles at 9:47 pace - being sensible and feeling strong.
In the evening, I was taken climbing for the first time. Preparing to join two very experienced climbers (Dr Dave and his friend Ed) as well as John (who has been climbing for a number of weeks), was rather nerve wracking. I think it's fair to say that I struggle participating in activities that I'm not good at! Knowing my own upper body strength, or lack thereof, I was feeling rather apprehensive at the prospect of climbing alongside 3 men far stronger than myself.
We went to 'Bloc' which is a bouldering centre. Bouldering is great because you don't need ropes - the walls are only about 12 feet high and the floor is made of thick crash-mats. I've bouldered before with my friend Steve so I knew the idea. The holds are colour coordinated according to difficulty. Green is the easiest, followed by black. I found that I was able to quickly reach the top of the green trails and was feeling rather pleased with myself when Dr Dave informed me that climbing isn't actually about speed. It is more about taking time to consider the placing of body parts and learning how to balance manage your weight distribution (see Dave, I was listening!) Going slowly is not a concept I am familiar with in any aspect of my life! It was therefore, exceptionally difficult to slow down when my hands and forearms were screaming at me to hurry up and get it over with! I did enjoy the session - despite finding it very difficult and frustrating because I was only able to complete 1 of the black trails. I would like go again but feel the need to develop some more upper body strength first!
Tuesday 24th Jan
Tuesdays are generally speedwork days. Howevever, I had decided that I was still taking it easy. Knowing that John needed to get his speedwork in, we planned that we'd run together for a bit before he picked up the pace for a few miles. Straight out the door, I felt really good. No coughing, legs felt fresh and I ran along merrily chatting with John. Checked my watch after a while and realised (to my surprise) that I was doing 7:30 mm pace. It felt comfortable so I didn't worry about slowing down. Even when John nipped off, I kept a consistent pace delighted that it was feeling so easy. Finished with a total of 8 miles at 7:33 min mile pace.
On another note -OUCH! My arms, hands, back, shoulders and every part of my upper body was rather painful - might not be climbing on a weekly basis...
Wednesday 25th Jan
Having not been to club for a couple of weeks, I was really missing my GWR crew. I very much enjoyed a steady 10 miles. Ran with my good friend Orla for a while which was lovely, until she sprinted off leaving me for dust! Back at club, she revealed that the reason for her swift departure was that she realsied that she was on a track for a 10 mile PB (which I'm delighted to say she achieved!). It has been wonderful to see her progressing so quickly over the last few months.
10 miles at 7:59 mm. Legs aching a bit today - not sure if I should blame last nights 7:30mm or climbing...
Thursday 25th Jan
We ran early today and my gosh it was chilly and windy. A fab new 7 mile route through Ashton Court in the dark with head-torches - super! Just recovery pace though 9:38mm average which was pretty good considering John dragged me up nightingale valley (a VERY steep and long hill). Legs feeling tired and not especially recovered.
In the evening, it was the Ashton Court Parkrun social at the Cottage which is handily only a short walk from home. Always lovely to socialise with the Parkrun crew; a very friendly bunch. We ate dinner there as well and I'm pleased to share that they have a gluten free menu (although they did only have 1 menu so were rather protective over it!) with a good few options. I went for the special of the day - vegetable curry. It was good, solid pub grub - would recommend.
Friday 26th Jan
When you get out of bed (at 5:15am!) and can't help but groan, as your legs reach the floor and attempt to hold your weight, you know it's going to be a challenging run! As I staggered slowly across the floor yelping slightly at each step, John helpfully reminded me that today's 13 miles needed to be at around 8 min mile pace....hmmm...not sure that's going to happen...I thought to myself.
Straight out of the door and John is merrily hopping along while I limp behind. I suggest that he should go ahead if he wants to keep his planned pace as there was no way I could do more than 9mm today. After much deliberation, we mutually (I think) agreed to cut today's run down to 6 miles at recovery run pace. A sensible decision as I was definitely in need of more recovery time.
Friday also means running club. Today was session 2 with the Year 3 and 4 kids. After taking it steady last week, they were eager to show off and do some faster stuff. I told them that we were going to have a long distance race of just under 1/2 mile (a very long way if you are 8!). Now, young kids are generally great at sprinting but they find pacing themselves at a longer distance really difficult. This was today's lesson. As each child finished, I gave them a number which would correspond to a group for next weeks session. They were quicker than I expected so we did some work on acceleration and deceleration running fast for 10 steps and then slow for 10 steps (this idea came from my own speed work training sessions with Camilla from GWR).
I was rather eager to get home from work today as me and John were going away for the weekend. I'd booked a holiday apartment in Woolacombe and couldn't wait to get going.
For dinner I cooked a gluten free chicken curry using a gluten free Chicken Tikka sauce from Asda. I also added peppers, onion and mushrooms - delicious.
Saturday 27th Jan
Waking up in a new place on a Saturday morning can only mean one thing; time of a spot of Parkrun tourism! We drove to Barnstaple and were greeted by a very friendly group of runners. It is a newer Parkrun than Ashton Court and quite a bit smaller with just 142 runners. One of mine and John's targets this year is to both finish first at a race so this was the mission today. The only problem - John was trying to finish first on a course he was unfamiliar with and one that no one was able to really clearly explain to us! When halfway round I saw him coming towards me on the same path, I knew that, despite my final words before we started being "Don't get lost," he'd clearly gone the wrong way! It transpired that actually it wasn't his fault - a volunteer actually accidentally sent him, and the first 4 or 5 finishers, in the wrong direction. In fairness, it was the most confusing course I've ever ran! So much so that I can't actually describe it fully - suffice to say there was a lot of going around parks and fields in all sorts of different directions! Nevertheless, an enjoyable run -especially because John did in fact finish as first man and I finished as first lady.
The run felt pretty good. I averaged 6:33mm pace - unfortunately, it felt like 6:00 - probably because this is my first time running fast since being unwell. The course was a bit slippery as well so I was pretty happy with a time of 20:10 (especially since I beat Dan's time from when he was last there!). I also earned my first Parkrun top 10 finish by coming in in 9th position.
Really enjoyed the rest of the day exploring Woolacoombe with John. The only issue was that our apartment was at the top of a 1/2 mile long VERY steep hill. After going up and down a number of times that day, my glutes were feeling rather painful - could cause problems for tomorrows planned 20 miler.
Sunday 29th Jan
Today was John's birthday and what better way to celebrate than a 20 mile run! Woke up with rather achy legs and very painful glutes but I knew today wasn't going to be too quick so just tried not to think about it! We headed off on the Tarka trail (named from the film Tarka the Otter - rather an old reference -we had it on VHS!) which was mostly made up of good quality cycle paths. The route was stunning; beautiful views, lovely villages and rolling countryside. The only challenges were those rolls- it was a very hilly route. However I am learning to embrace hills so managed most of them without too much whinging! After running 10 miles and arriving almost back to the apartment, we decided to continue running towards Ilfracombe. I've been there before so decided to show John the rather unusual Damien Hurst statue which I knew was at the end of the harbour. We then headed back for Woolacombe. We realised that the run would be about a mile short. John suggested that we call it a day at 19 however I was keen to get to a round 20. John agreed but decided to punish my enthusiasm by extending the run to include the VERY steep hill that we'd ascended and descended a number of times the day previous. It was a very difficult way to end our 20 miles but excellent training for the infamous 'Heartbreak Hill' at mile 20 of the Boston Marathon.
Pleased to get another 20 miler in the bank. Considerably slower than the last one but, with a total of 2000 feet of elevation gain, I'm happy with an average of 9:15 min miles for the whole run.
In conclusion, a great week! Feeling totally 100% better and eager to move onto another week of training. Mission for next week - follow the plan exactly.
I hold the climbing to be entirely responsible for your park run victory!
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