Abingdon Marathon Training - 9 weeks to go
The title of my blog this week relates to this picture...read on to find out more!
Monday 14th August 2017
After a really successful week last week, I was keen to continue making the most of my summer holidays to train as well as I could. Today I was meeting a good friend Fliss and her daughter (my God daughter) Amelia in Leigh woods for a walk. I decided to run there and back as well. My legs were feeling quite achy after yesterday's long run but not too bad so I managed to run up Nightingale Valley (a VERY steep path in the woods). We probably walked a good couple of miles (with lots of meandering to look for dens, mushrooms and sticks - all very exciting to a 2 year old!) which really helped to loosen my legs up a bit.
Amelia is also getting pretty good at running now - exciting! Looking forward to when she can try parkrun!
When John got home from work we ran around the harbourside (3miles) before our usual yoga class.
Tuesday 15th August 2017
We were up early today for our morning run. John wanted to get some speed work done to get his legs ready for the Towpath race on Friday. I also did my own speedwork. 4.6 miles with 6 x 0.1 mile strides. I've not done many strides yet this plan and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy them. Strides are basically sprints for a short distance where my aim was to get my heart rate up and think about my running form. I find they really help to pass the time - I will try and do some more in the next coming weeks.
I had a lovely lunch today with John's mum in Banco Lounge - brilliant for vegans and coeliacs because they have separate menus with loads of choice.
In the afternoon, I went to a pureabs class at puregym on the harbourside. The class was alright - as I've often found with puregym - the staff come across rather bored and lack the enthusiasm that I've been used to at other gyms. Still it felt good to work on my 'focus area'.
John cycled home from work today so I ran out a couple of miles to meet him. It was a lovely evening so we stopped off at the Cottage on the harbourside and enjoyed the sun and a cheeky drink!
Wednesday 16th August 2017
Today I did back to back classes. Yoga first - another great class - really loving this at the moment. Followed by a CX class at Vivo gym. A really excellent class with a very enthusiastic Australian leader who clearly knew his stuff. This class was also ab based but to music and had a great fast pace about it - I'll definitely try and do that again next week.
In the evening, John and I ran to club as the plan asked for a medium-long run. We ran The Maestro's new 11 mile route which I enjoy but find very challenging as there are about 3 miles into the middle of the route which are all uphill and on very rocky uneven ground. By the time we got home, we'd covered 14miles in 8:40mm pace which isn't bad for a hilly route.
Thursday 17th August 2017
Up early today to run with John before he left for work. Just a gentle 3 mile recovery run. During the day I went to Clevedon to meet my good friends Steve and Fliss and their son Sam. Really nice to catch up with them.
John cycled home again today so, in the evening, I ran out to meet him on his bike to add another few miles to the total.
Friday 18th August 2017
My sister Amy came up from London today to stay for a couple of days. I told her to pack some sport clothes as I had a cunning plan in mind! I eased her in gently...I managed to convince her to try my yoga class. She actually really enjoyed it!
We then met my Aunty for lunch before going to Harbour and Browns a new restaurant in Cargo 2 at Wapping Wharf. They do a bottomless Prosecco lunch (usually only on Saturdays and Sundays but I managed to convince them to let us have it on Friday!). The food was fantastic and the service excellent - we had hardly drank half a glass of Prosecco before it was topped back up! After spending a good couple of hours chatting and drinking, I realised that running today wasn't going to be a good idea! And actually, I felt really good for having a rest day - my calves were certainly thanking me!
In the evening, it was the last in the series of the Towpath races. Amy did a fantastic job of helping John and I take entries (hopefully she'll come and help again next year!). Then we moved to the finish line to wait for John. He ran really well and managed to secure 2nd place for the series - awesome!
Saturday 19th August 2017
Today, was parkrun day! It was even more exciting than usual because we'd managed to convince Amy to give it a go as well! The 3 of us ran together and Amy did brilliantly. I really enjoyed running with her and (despite her quote of "Worst morning ever" to Marcus when asked how she was finding it!) I hope she'll give it another go.
Sunday 20th August 2017
Today the plan called for one of the hardest workouts - 18 miles with 10 at marathon pace.
John thought it best to split the efforts into groups of 4 miles, 3 miles and 3 miles (and because I always take on board his advice, I decided to do the same). We met our friends 'The Woodys' near the start of the Bristol to Bath cycle path - a really good route for marathon pace efforts as it is relatively flat.
We did 4 miles to warm up before starting our first block of efforts. I felt really good - my legs felt fresh having had a couple days of little or no running - and my breathing was steady.
mile 5 - 6:43
mile 6 - 6:38
mile 7 - 6:37
mile 8 - 6:38
The next mile was recovery. Whilst it was great to get my hear rate down and settle my breathing and recover a bit, I found it difficult to get back up to pace again - something to consider for my next marathon pace workout.
The next block of 3 miles was the hardest because this section of road was quite undulating. This highlighting the importance of me doing more marathon pace miles on undulating ground.
mile 10 - 6:45
mile 11 - 6:47
mile 12 - 6:48
I took another mile recovery before starting my last block of efforts. Once again, I found it really hard to get the legs back up to speed. Luckily, the last 3 miles were downhill - hooray!
mile 14 - 6:44
mile 15 - 6:37
mile 16 - 6:32
I finished with 2 slow miles to recover. 18 miles done at an average pace of 7:29 mm. Feels really good to have hit 10 miles at marathon pace. It wasn't easy today but I managed to push through. I definitely feel stronger than ever and after a week of heavy exercising, high mileage and lots of drinking, I feel really pleased with that run.
Total for this week - 61.4 miles
Plan for next week - I'll be taking it a bit easier as I'll be tapering for the Severn Bridge half marathon on the Sunday. I'm really hoping for a good position so going to give my legs lots of recovery in the second half of the week. Still going to keep up the weight and strength training as much as possible and probably aim for around 50 miles.
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