Our joint blog - The Gluten Free Running Girl and the Ginger Bearded Running Man's Journey to the London Marathon!
What we've been up to...
In the 9 weeks since the Abingdon Marathon, we've both been steadily ticking over. Trying our best to stay fit and strong whilst (unsuccessfully) avoiding crisps! We've averaged around 30 miles a week and we've been doing weekly PT and Yoga sessions. We've done a lot of parkruns and cross country races.
We're both feeling fit and strong and we are both looking forward to starting our next block of marathon training. (Some of us are!)
We have decided to use the P&D plans once again. We are going to start by following the 55-70 miles a week plan for a few weeks before moving onto the 70-85 miles a week plan and finally progressing to the 85+ plan as we get closer to our goal of the London Marathon!
For this plan, we've decided to write a joint blog!
Key:
Joint thoughts/contributions - blue
John/GBRM - orange
Kelly - purple
An exciting opportunity...
About a week ago, I spotted a post on facebook from one of our running heroes...Jason Cherriman. Sadly, he shared that he was injured but while he couldn't run, he wanted to offer to mentor others.
I approached him and I am delighted that he agreed to mentor me! I'm really excited to have the chance to gain advice from a 2:21 marathon runner!
I have the opportunity over the next 18 weeks to hear first hand "Jason said this..." and "Jason said that..." whilst developing a strong ability to bite my tongue and hold back from using one of my favourite phrases - I told you so! Jokesaside - Jason Cherriman alongside others has been an inspiration to me and watching his progress over the last few years has shown what normal people can achieve with extra effort and determination (He's a 2:21 marathon runner!!) I'm very excited as always to be a part of Kelly's progress, even more so this time round with the help of one of our heroes!
18 weeks to go
Monday 18th December 2017
We were up early to start our first day of marathon training. At 5:30am we left home and ran the 1.5 miles to Oakfields Personal Training to meet Jules who had, as per usual, planned a pretty full on session!
Squats plus floor work:
30 kg weight on bar - x20 squats followed by x20 crunches repeat 3 times
40kg weight on bar x15 squats followed by x 10 down and ups repeat 3 times
50 kg weight on the bar (yup pretty much Kelly's body weight!) x10 squats followed by x30 mountain climbers repeat 3 times
Squat and press 10 kg plates followed by 10x press ups Repeat 5 times
Glute raises followed by X10 foot jumps Repeat 5 times
35 kg weight on bar -squats x5, x 10, x15, x20, x25
45 kg weight on bar - squats x25, x20, x15, x10, x5
This was a seriously heavy weights session...I left feeling pumped ...but concerned about how my legs would feel tomorrow!
In the evening, we went to Yoga for a much needed stretch after this morning's efforts.
11 tonnes of total lifting is maybe defying the advice of P&D to cross train and treat Monday as a rest day but after 5+ weeks of PT I find myself really enjoying the sessions and swearing less and less every week! Feeling pumped for the rest of day and eating as much as I can guilt free through the rest of the day.
Tuesday 19th December 2017
Today was my last day of work (woohoo!). We rested in the morning to give our legs the best possible chance of doing a speed work session in the evening.
After work, I may have stopped off a the pub for a cheeky drink with friends from work, celebrating the end of term...I put all thoughts of running out of my mind..oops!
When I got home, I wasn't feeling especially keen on running and, had I been alone, might have done a gentle recovery run...this is where having a partner, who is also training, becomes a real advantage - John was already changed and ready to go - busily planning a route. I decided to just go along with it and try and do the best session I could (after half a cider!).
The plan said to do 8 miles with 4 miles at half marathon pace...which seemed really hard and, for me, is probably around 6:20mm now (scary). We agreed that 4 miles at marathon pace was more achievable - my new marathon pace is 6:40 (even more scary!).
The first two miles I did at 7:56 and 8:05mm pace - all felt good. Then the efforts came - 6:39, 6:40, 6:38, 6:41 -then two miles to cool down. I was working hard but still felt alright - a positive session.
As Kelly explained above, we are following the 55-70 P&D plan. We would usually (try to) follow the 70-85 plan but I feel that 18 weeks of 70+ mile weeks is just too much (for me definitely) so my (our) plan is to do 6 weeks of the reduced plan with altered workouts to build up as best as possible for a more intense and focused 10/12 week build up. This being the case I decided that 1: I'm in no shape to run any half marathon paces lactate threshold miles and 2: I don't want to! So I decided we'd be better of trying our new marathon pace: 6:40MM = <2:55 A 4 mile block of pace in the midle of a 10 mile workout meant that the session was very straight forward with the HR barely getting in the 150s. A good session banked and no damage done meaning we were ready for another 5 days of marathon training.
Wednesday 20th December 2017
Today was the first day of my holiday so I decided to go to yoga. I ran the long route there - a nice, gentle 3 miles to stretch out the legs.
In the evening, it was the GWR Christmas lights run! I ran to club first before getting changed into my Christmas tree outfit. We ran a lovely, sociable 4 miles. A total of 7 miles for the day.
An easy day of 6 steady miles with 20+ GWR runners, enjoying the lights and building up a good appetite in time for the Christmas party/buffet/quiz!
Thursday 21st December 2017
Very hungover from the previous nights festivities I gulped down a pint of water whilst considering whether or not to attempt the 10 miles on the plan or just run the bare minimum 3 miles up to club to collect the car. We're always over confident when drunk - I was still drunk. 10 dark and scary miles later I found myself sober and very pleased with myself for banking the second 10 miler of the week at a pretty good pace of 8MM. Over to you GFRG...
Having seen John's run, I decided to do what any loving girlfriend would ...try and beat it! I wanted to do 11 miles quicker than John's pace! Mission successful! 11 miles an average pace of 8:19mm. An enjoyable run...although my legs were definitely feeling the squats from Monday and speedwork from Tuesday.
Friday 22nd December 2017
Last day of work for me! Very excited so getting up today was easy! A steady recovery run around the harbourside with some strides thrown in: to make the run a bit more interesting and to prepare my legs for a bit of blast at parkrun on Saturday. 5 miles with 5 x 100mtr strides - easy!
I wanted to run with John this morning so got out of bed early to join him before he went off for his last day at work. From the moment I started running, I knew it was going to be a painful one...my legs were killing! Really sore all over. I finished a slow, painful 5 miles and instantly texted Jenny Buckley my physio. Luckily, she was able to fit me in for a sports massage in the afternoon.
Saturday 23rd December 2017
parkrun tourism. Opting for Burnham today as it bought us closer to friends we had plans in Congresbury. Keen to have a blast but with the main intention to focus on endurance, we got there early and banked 3 miles before 9. Gun goes off and we're away. Race pace doesn't feel too bad and I don't feel any panic from being at the front. A mile passes and I'm joined by a regular who tells me he's trying to bank 3 miles @ 5:40MM pace - nice - I'll try and keep up with you then! 2 beeps and mile three begins, feeling strong I decide to pick up the pace and put a decent gap between me and 2nd place. A progressive run of 5:55, 5:44 and 5:26 gave me a finishing time of 17:22 - well chuffed - my 5th fastest 5k of 2017 and reward for a good week of training. A 4 mile cool down with some socialising brought up my third 10miler of the week - boom!
Today the plan called for 9 miles GA and we planned to add a parkrun into the middle of that. Burnham was the choice for today and we were meeting our friend James there. We arrived early and did 3 miles to warm up and check out the route. John had done it a few times before but I'd only done it once so wanted to know where I was going! Luckily, I was feeling the effects of my massage and my legs felt a lot better today. The course is lovely and flat but on the coast so very windy. James and I ran the first 2.5 miles together - we are a similar speed so often find ourselves not too far apart in races. Today he finished ahead of me. I did however manage to finish as first lady with a time of 19:45 - not too bad considering the week of training I've had so far.
Phew, a lot of miles done already this week and just a gentle 15 miles tomorrow...or so I thought!
(Coming from the one who wanted to start with 100+ mile weeks...)
Sunday 24th December 2017
John and Marcus (aka the Maestro!) like to stick to the plan. So I was feeling fairly confident that, as the plan just called for 15 miles - no marathon paces efforts today- we would be enjoying a gentle pootle around. But no. Sub 8mm says the Maestro - 7:40mm the aim. Great! Not sure that my legs would be up for it, I started off steadily. Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling too bad so (once the first few miles of hills were out the way) I managed to keep (relatively) close to the boys and finish with 15 miles with an average pace of 7:53. Pretty pleased with that for week 1.
Long run day - woohoo! My 2nd favourite run after parkrun (all of my runs with you are my favourite GFRG...) Wanting to train differently to when we did for Boston and Abingdon - I am very much embracing the Maestro's philosophy of running as close to marathon pace whilst comfortable as possible and P&D does day to run your long runs at 60-90 seconds slower the race pace... so not only should 7:40 - 8:10mm pace be comfortable at this stage in our running careers - it is somewhat a necessity to simulate the marathon as best as possible :-P 15 miles banked before mid day was a great feeling and has allowed us to chill this Christmas eve and stuff our faces - lush!
Some stats:
HR ECO - Heart rate economy is one of my favourite formulas! It represents the number of heart beats per mile! It's considered (by the pros: Jason Cherriman and Steve Way alike) that somewhere between 900-1000 beats per mile is very aerobically strong and the lower the beats per mile - more economic! As you can see above, the GFRG and I are both floating just above 1000 beats per mile - not a bad start but what will be most interesting (and what we hope for!) is that as we train and run further and more often we - should - become aerobically stronger and more economic/efficient, giving us the best chance in the marathon come race day.
A great week of running where I'd enjoyed every stride. It's nice running whilst on holiday and with no pressure of having to follow the plan. Just enjoying running and improving steadily in good time before properly going for is in 6 weeks time. Merry Christmas one and all - a year review and a further London Marathon blog to follow from us over the festive period!
Really looking forward to following both of your progress! Good luck with it. Have a great Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Merry Christmas to you too.
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