Its been nearly 2 months since I posted about trying to beat 3 hours at London Marathon in April, I thought it might be time to add a progress report on how its going.

What has changed ? Well, my statement about this not being easy hasn’t, far from it, I was right, fast running hurts !! Injury prevention has become a regular pastime, dealing with niggles when you are only running means using biking and swimming to recover or cross train loses important run mileage, so keeping up the aerobic fitness is a balance between mileage loss and reducing injury likelihood. I can feel my body is on the edge most of the time waiting to break but quick call to massage man Steve Yeomans sorts that. I am still chugging down large quantities of Fuel5 and popping XEndurance tablets to ensure I am fit to run back to back sessions but its still not preventing tiredness which will inevitably increase the likelihood of injury.

The running hasn’t gone badly, I am running more than I normally would but from the results over longer distances, still not enough.

On the flip side I have set 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon and 20 mile PB’s in the last 2 months, admittedly the 5k and 10k were on a track, the 1/2 marathon was only by 23 seconds, and if you count a 20mile PB from only having done 2 races ever at that distance and the first one was a disaster then I will take it.

My 2 ’20 mile’ races side by side, steady but not fast enough really. Remember I need 6.50 mile pace to break 3 hours.

 

 

 

Pacing side by side, better on the second run and a great big hill to climb is a better excuse than the first race when I just fell apart at 18 miles

 

 

The downside is I am running out of weeks to get in the yards and the last 2 tester races over 20 miles have me at around a 3:03 marathon time, it might sound better than my current PB of 3:12 but its still not sub 3. I suppose if you take 4 seconds improvement in 2 weeks, I have 7 left, a bit more running, that gives 14 secs per mile improvement and I have to hang on for another 6 miles, stretching reality here but you never know.

The other change (significant really) is that I have dropped out of London and will be running at Stratford instead a few weeks later. This enforced change was due to family commitments and to be honest balancing family, training and work means there are priorities and family wins every time. The conversation went something like this …

Kelly ‘When is London ?’

Me ‘You know when it is, its the 23rd April’

Kelly ‘That’s the kids holidays and my sister has offered to take the kids for a week, we should go somewhere that week’

Me ‘I will be tapering, wont be walking anywhere, no drinking, what did you have in mind ?’

Kelly ‘Well that’s great !!’

And that was when I lost realised the error of my ways !

Marathon dates can be changed, kid free time to ourselves isn’t a regular experience, and they looooove their aunty. So I will be doing Stratford on the 7th May instead of London.

So, what do I need to do to get that extra 15-20 secs per mile in the next 7 weeks, chopping off a leg is counterproductive and messy, natural weight loss will have to do, a good 5 solid weeks of training coming up, all biking has been reduced to one turbo set a week and no swimming.

There are no excuses, I haven’t given up on breaking 3 hours, far from it and this weekends 20 gave me more confidence than I had a week or two ago. I have a lot of work to do and not much time to get there, nothing like a challenge.

For those doing Manchester in 2 weeks and London on the 23rd, good luck and race well, I will I hope still be training hard.

Rosey

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