London Marathon Training - 16 weeks to go!
Firstly, thank you to everyone who read our blog last week, we were amazed that we have had over 800 views! Does that count as going viral???
After a really successful first week of training, we were both slightly apprehensive about week 2. Fellow P&D followers will know that the plan for week 2 is notoriously hard (to the point where we think there might have been some typos!). But as it was also Christmas and we were both off work, we just had to woman-up and get on with it! Here's how week 2 looked for Cox-Dicks..
Monday 25th December 2017 - Christmas Day!
After getting an early night (we were very excited!) we were up early to open our presents. Amusingly, many of which (between me and John) were identical! Including some running and parkrun related items. Present opening finished, what else would we do on Christmas day than go for a run of course! We ran up to the Downs where we met a jolly gang with a fabulous array of festive headgear.
My legs were very sore from our long run the day before so I was thankful of the very gentle pace throughout. Despite the route being hillier and longer than I would have liked, it felt great to be out and about and earn our Christmas dinner!
After a quick look on Strava - it appears the 12 miles we banked this Christmas day was the furthest Kelly has ever run (not counting Boston Marathon) on a Monday! Third furthest ever Monday run for me. Monday is usually and has always been a recovery/rest day so the body was probably very confused by running so far but very glad to have burned the calories seeing as we totally outweighed the deficit with lunch!
Tuesday 26th December 2017 - Boxing Day!
One of the best things about not being at work, for me, is not having to set an alarm to get up and run early in the morning. Consequently, starting our run at 9:30 am this morning was blissful. We ran from my parents' house to Nonsuch park, around the park 3 times and back. 10 miles done with 8x100m strides. My legs were still feeling achy - especially during the strides but I felt strong and able to keep a good pace going between reps. My body/brain wont allow me to sleep past 7ish so I use the extra hours whilst Kelly catches up on beauty sleep to read up on all the usual running blogs/newsfeeds and amaze all who will listen to me with very niche Cross Country based trivia!
Wednesday 27th December 2017
It was lovely today to join my Dad for a gym session. I managed 3 miles on the treadmill before dying of boredom! So...to keep Jules happy, I planned my own little abs circuit. It went like this:
12 x V-sit ups with 8kg medicine ball.
12 x normal crunches (feet on floor).
12 x crunches with legs at 90 degrees.
12 x crunches with legs straight up (well as straight as I can get them!).
12 x leg raises.
12 x windscreen wipers (legs up in air and then side to side over your body).
I repeated this twice through before being joined by John for the final set. I know it worked because my abs were aching for 2 days after!
The treadmill is BORING! 5 miles running a hilly program felt like running a marathon/23 miles (Haha...) Hard work without having the outside world passing by...but... a luxury considering the miserable cold/wet weather which was the alternative. No abs circuit for me - didn't want to show up the GFRG...
Thursday 28th December 2017
We did some re-arranging this week so planned to do Sunday's long run today. It was supposed to be 16 miles with 8 at Marathon Pace - eeek! We planned a lovely route from my parents' house to Richmond park.
The warm up run to the park felt really good. Legs were feel refreshed after only 3 miles yesterday and I was looking forward to giving marathon pace a bash. After 4 miles, we arrived in the park and marathon pace began. I knew that the park was more undulating than the routes that we'd usually use for MP efforts but I wanted to dig deep and really go for it. Mile 1 was successful - 6:48. Mile 2 had some uphill sections which I tried to combat in the downhills but only managed an average pace of 6:59. Don't worry, I told myself, it's still sub 7 so not too bad. Push on for the next mile. Unfortunately, I then remembered that the next mile had a really long, steep, muddy uphill section. There was no way I was going to be able to keep the pace up so, feeling a little down, I just told myself to get to the top of the hill. Thankfully my mountain goat of a boyfriend, who had powered up the hill in hardly any time at all, was waiting for me at the top. I knew that the next section of the park was flat-ish so I gave myself a good talking to and really worked hard to hit the pace again - 6:42 - spot on. Feeling positive, I powered into the 5th mile -trying my up most to hit another mile at pace. However, my legs were just getting heavier and heavier and tighter and tighter. I managed 6:58. With only 3 miles to go, I was desperate to pick the pace up again but it just wasn't happening. My breathing was all over the place and I simply couldn't hit the pace. John was quite a way ahead by now and I was feeling pretty down. I decided that there was no point in pushing myself to breaking point. I knew that that was the end of the mp efforts for today. I slowed down and tried to get my breathing back into a rhythm. At the end of the mile, John was waiting for me, arms outstretched. He knew that what I needed most at this point was a break and a cuddle!
Luckily for me, John was also happy to stop the MP efforts there. Phew! We plodded back to my parents. 14 miles in 1 hour 46mins with an average pace of 7:37.
Kelly has summed up this sessions emotions better than Bronte could have I reckon. Summary: Not ready yet. I'm using the first 6/8 weeks of training to slowly build up and thus not putting any pressure on myself at all. I wanna build a good base so that with 10 weeks until race day I can focus on hitting all the targets and bossing all the sessions. 6 weeks time we will both be laughing during this workout whilst struggling to get the heart rate above recovery effort!
Friday 29th December 2017
Just a gentle 5 mile recovery day - thank goodness! Legs very tight and really feeling the pain that is week 2! Same for me with 3 x 100mtr strides. I find the added strides help aid the recovery in that exagerating the technique (high knees, high elbows etc) seems to help me feel looser/better at the end of a recovery run.
Saturday 30th December 2017
Parkrun day! A steady run to and from Ashton Court with a fairly pacy parkrun in the middle- pacy not because we wanted to but because (for possibly the first time ever!) parkrun started on time - how dare they! - so we were late and found ourselves charging through the filed - actually quite fun!
9 miles done with an average pace of 8:04mm.
10 miles for me - steady GA throughout. Intention was to chase an Ashton Court PB but because we were late and with howling winds up and down the hill - there was no chance (after 2 weeks of training and no AC parkrun for several weeks, I'm DEFINITELY in PB shape as well!!) 2017 is the first year since running began (2013) where I have NOT ran a PB at Ashton Court!! :-(
Sunday 31st December 2017
Today was an unusual day for me as I was preparing for my first proper trail race! Now I don't usually stray from my trusty road surface for races but this was a rather special race as it marked the end of Woody's 2017 365 challenge; he has run everyday for 2017 - an amazing achievement.
So, I don my (hardly used) trail shoes, warm up and line up (as usual) near the start...the first section of the course had a good, flat surface so I thought I might as well go off fast and see what happens. There were some pretty gnarly looking women but I set myself the challenge of coming top 3.
The gun didn't quite go off but after a panicked shout of 'BANG!' from the race starter, we were off. As planned, I went out fast and secured my position as first lady. Mission - hold on for as long as possible! The first mile was great - fields and woodland paths - maybe trail running isn't so bad after all! Then mile 2 hit. Mile 2 consisted of a very narrow, very muddy path with roots and stones haphazardly in the way and a ridiculously steep vertical drop on the right hand side - that I am reliably told, leads to the river Wye! Great! Now, my sense of balance and coordination is really very poor...to say I was scared was an understatement! I was trying to marry my eagerness to win and therefore run as fast as possible with my desire not to fall down the cliff edge and into the river!
Thankfully, I survived and mile 3 was much better. We had a long downhill grassy section where (on a turn) I stole a glance behind me and spotted 2nd lady not too far off. Oh no you don't! I told her (mentally...) I nimbly jumped over the style and I was off- storming downhill. Knowing there was only 2 miles left, I wondered if the rest of the course might be on grass....that would be nice ...and safe I thought. But no. The next obstacle in this ridiculous course was the infamous 'puddle'. Now, not wanting to be seen to be a wimp, I stormed through the puddle at full speed and was horrified to find that the water came almost up to my waist!
Not long to go - I kept telling myself as the course went back into the woods - oh man! It became muddier and muddier, boggier and boggier and steeper. Some parts were so muddy and steeply uphill that I simply couldn't run them I was climbing more than running. These sections definitely slowed me down and I was sure that 2nd lady was getting closer.
There were some downhill sections next - great I thought - I need to open up a gap. Unfortunately, what with the mud, it was very hard to stop after the downhill and change direction...I developed an excellent (in my opinion) technique which I have named - Tree Grabbing. It involves running at top speed downhill and then finding a tree, on the route, which I then proceeded to run at and then fling my arms around in a hugging motion to bring me to a standstill!
With 1 mile to go, we had a slightly more solid bit of ground. Repeating lots of positive mantras to myself, I didn't look behind but powered towards the finish line - desperate not to be caught now.
Around the last few tight bends and there it was - the finish line! I crossed the line delighted - a win and a beautiful trophy!
Huge congratulations to all the GWR crew and especially to Woody for completing his 365 challenge.
A different race for me. 8th place. Similar intentions to Kelly in that I turned up wanting to maybe podium. It turns out the holidays and the Welsh allow for a lot of gnarly competition indeed - too tough for me! The course was certainly challenging and not knowing the route didn't help. Pleased to have kept the pace/effort going throughout the race and if anything this weekends hilly parkrun and todays trail run have helped counteeract the lacf of strength work we (ok I) have done this last fornight.
An EXCEPTIONAL run from the GFRG... Her trail shoes are the only ones that don't get washed and I really thought she'd get found out today - is there any surface this champ cannot dominate?!? Hard cores, beware!
Mr Woods ticked the box - 365 days of running 5k+ - EVERY DAY! An amazing achievement - nice one buddy.
Total for the week= 58.9 miles (yes this really does hurt my OCD!)
60.9 miles for me and two weeks of running every day.
Keep an eye out tomorrow as we will both be publishing separate blogs detailing our 2017 summaries and target 2018.
Happy New Year one and all - happy running! Use this evenings festivities to make as many running goals for 2018 as possible!
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