Abingdon Marathon Training 7 weeks to go!
Monday 28th August 2017
Bank holiday woohoo! Really nice having John home for another day so we did a gentle 6 mile recovery (with a pit stop part way through for cake!) after the Severn Bridge race yesterday. We spent the rest of the day soaking up the last bit of summer sun at our friend's housewarming BBQ.
Tuesday 29th August 2017
It's been a while since I've done a good speed work session so, when John mentioned (on Monday evening) that he was planning to get up early and bang out a speedy 10 miles the next morning, I was keen to go along...however, my mind changed very quickly when awoken at 6am...oops! Back to sleep I went...well it was my last week of holiday after all! After analysing John's data on strava, I decided to do what any loving girlfriend would do...go out and try and smash his workout! Mwhaha!
10 miles with 10 sets of strides on the plan. I love running with strides; it makes the miles zoom past. My target was to try and keep all my miles around the 7:30mm mark. I used mile 1 as a warm up (7:53) then started my strides on mile 2. I decided to do 0.1 mile of strides every 1/2 a mile (at 0.4 and at 0.9). To start with, I found that when I finished each set of strides, my pace slowed considerably. Consequently, I set myself a new challenge - to finish the strides and then maintain a faster pace for the rest of the mile. I did the strides in miles 2 - 6 in a pace of : 7:29, 7:23, 7:24, 7:23, 7:14 . Once the strides were complete, I focused on simply maintaining a solid pace for the last 4 miles - 7:41, 7:32, 7:36 and 7:34. Boom! A really strong workout done and, most importantly, a quicker average pace than John! Hehe!
Wednesday 30th August 2017
Today John and I wanted to do a long run as we wouldn't be able to over the weekend. We set out with the intention of running 20 miles. Running to club, my legs weren't feeling mega fresh after yesterday's efforts but we were taking it relatively steady around 8mm pace. We managed to bag 5 miles before getting to club and arrived just in time to head out again with the 10 mile group. I haven't ran the summer 10 route for a while and I'd forgotten just how challenging it is when you're feeling a little tired! It's pretty hilly and despite being able to keep up with the boys on the flat and downhill sections, on the uphill, I just can't keep up - very frustrating - must do more hill training. John and I managed to get up to 16 miles but were slowing down and running out of energy so decided to cut it short. Still, 16 isn't too shabby for a Wednesday night.
Thursday 31st August 2017
Having failed to get up early on Tuesday, today I was more successful. Up early with John for a 5 mile plod around Ashton Court. Good to remind myself of what it was like to get up early and my 6 weeks of holiday was nearly coming to the end. This was the start of a few days of recovery before the Oldbury 10 mile race on Sunday. I spent the rest of the day with my Aunty and Cousin who came to visit me for the day. Had a lovely time showing them all of the best bits of Bristol - it really reminded me just how great this city is and how much there is to do and see.
After eating far too much during the day, I was feeling guilty so did another gentle 3 miles around the Harbourside before Yoga with Amelia at Cargo 2. A really great class this week with lots of stretching and relaxing - just what I needed.
Friday 1st September 2017
Another 3 mile recovery run today before going into school (for the 3rd time this week) to finish off sorting out my classroom ready for the new term. I also had a sports massage from Jenny to loosen up my legs ready for the weekend.
Saturday 2nd September 2017
Saturday means parkrun day! I knew I needed 7 miles to make a lovely round 60 miles for the week so we ran there and back as well. As much as I love run parkrun flat out, I also really enjoy a gentle run because I use it as a chance to have a good ol' chat and catch up- finding out how everyone's running journeys are going.
Normally, we like to spend the day before a race, relaxing, eating and generally doing very little...well this wasn't the case today. After convincing our good friend Cat to run the Butcombe Ultra while drunk at the BBQ on Monday, we thought we'd better pop along and support her. John did some calculations and worked out which checkpoint he thought she'd be at. We arrived only to find that she was going great guns and had already passed...on to the next checkpoint we went. Assuming that we had a bit of time to kill, we went to the bar and go a couple of drinks and snacks. We'd literally just made it outside when Cat appeared looking so strong and super happy! She finished in 4th place overall and 2nd lady - seriously impressive. Very proud.
Next stop for the day was to go hang out with some friends at a rugby club cider festival. Beautiful sunshine, great rhubarb cider, a bouncy castle (yes I had a go!) and fab bands playing made for a lovely afternoon. The only downside was that we were standing up for a long time and not really resting...hope that doesn't cause us a problem in the race tomorrow.
Sunday 3rd September 2017
Today was the Oldbury 10 miler. Its leisurely start time of 10:30am meant that I didn't have to eat my usual pre-race breakfast (egg fried rice) until 7:30 which made was rather nice. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't kind to us. It was very very raining and also rather windy...maybe it will calm down I thought...
My aim for the race today was to get all miles as close to 6:30mm pace as possible. I was also hoping for a good position but wanted the pacing to be my main challenge. At the start I noticed that the lady who beat me last week was there again today...round 2 ding ding!
I set off and was feeling pretty good for the first mile. One lady I didn't recognise stormed off ahead and was well in front. I was running with my new rival from Bitton. She was clearly planning on running the exact same pace as me so I formulated a plan to sit behind her and let her pace me before sprinting past her at the finish to take 2nd place - simples! However, I didn't quite manage to execute this cunning plan. The first 4 miles were solid 6:26, 6:29, 6:31 and 6:36. The course was flat at tarmac, the weather was cool - on paper the conditions were perfect for me - but something just didn't feel right. My legs felt really heavy and tired and lacked the spring and energy that I knew I needed to sustain this pace. My Bitton rival managed to maintain the pace and as I slowed slightly I could just see her inching away, mile by mile. I dug in and really tried to pick it up and get back on track but it just feel like the whole course was steadily uphill. Then the wind really started to pick up - great! The rest of the miles were pretty depressing time wise 6:40, 6:37, 6:53, 6:50, 6:57 and 6:48. There was nothing I could do but dig deep and try to hang on for a PB.
I finished in 3rd place in a time of 1:07:23. I'm pretty disappointed with the time but I put it down to spending too much time on my feel yesterday combined with racing hard last weekend.
Luckily, I scrapped a PB by around 20 seconds which does mean that I have now officially PB'd in every distance - 1 mile, 2 miles, 5000m (track), 5k (road), 10km, 10 miles, 20 miles, half marathon and marathon in 2017!
So another week of training gone and only 7 weeks to go. Next week I'm taking my new Year 6ers off on camp so will be a relatively light week of training. I will still try and run as much as possible...but might have to be before the kids wake up or after they've gone to bed - oh dear!
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