#virginmarathon

Id like to start this week just to enhance my thank you to Dennis Larkin, without the help of him as I mentioned last week I’d not be writing this.

Its easy to get carried away, this was a huge problem I was incurring in 2014, and even with the experience this time around, I will still fall for the same mindset. However, the mindset may be similar but the times in which I’m getting carried away in are unique. Hitting faster minutes per miles this early on in training isn’t setting in stone what I’m trying to achieve, but defiantly is a wind in the sail to a fantastic target. I’m feeling confident and capable.

It’s funny how when you start something you haven’t done consistently for a year or two how fast you can get into it again. I was expecting to have a good few weeks before I felt entirely comfortable with running over longer distances again, and its not just the legs that you need to win over. ‘Mind over matter’ is a very commonly used phrase, and it’s a must in my running training. Feeling physically fit is great, you know how far you can push your body, but when your head isn’t on the same page you can end up in a tough place. For me, distraction is key! Only today, I had a customer ask me how do I deal with the boredom of running long distance? Answering slightly embarrassed over their opinion of something I take pride in doing labeled ‘boring’ I begin to explain about how having the right mentality becomes so important. Personally, I find the beginning of any duration run the hardest, obviously the end of a marathon and longer distanced runs are physically exhausting for the body, but from my experience the mind at this stage is won over by the thought of home, crowds cheering or seeing loved ones. So if your out there giving running a go and you feel like quitting, let your mind switch off, you can get into and you can push yourself further than you can imagine. 20 minutes I’d say for me, after that I’m free in the mind to think through stresses or relive happy times, all the makings of a multi-emotional runner.

So you’ve probably figured that I have had a good steady week running from how I’ve opened up on this week’s blog. Correct. No need to hide the downside though, god I feel exhausted adjusting into these runs. Today is Monday and I was so tired last night I couldn’t even bring myself to write my second blog post! Thankfully my running isn’t as shocking. J From a training perspective I’m breaking down my weeks, trying to only look at the training week I am currently working on and not any further. Its quite daunting looking so far ahead so deciding not to was a good move. Ha, saying that even looking at the week in front of you is daunting enough but hey, planning needs to be done so this is a must.

Everyone hates a Monday, unless your sacking off work for the week to go on your 5* dream holiday. On a Monday, so far, I’m finding that the first run of the week is easy, so it should be after the weekend heavy milers, but once you’ve somewhat forgotten about them then it makes for a nice gentle start to the week. Doesn’t touch that holiday idea though. I was feeling a bit mad when I agreed with Em to go to the gym for 6:30 this morning, but to my surprise she was ready to go before me, which made for an interesting change to routine. I’ll leave that there though, as last Monday I had gone in the afternoon for a nice 35minute easy run. I thought it would be tough after the first long duration run on the Sunday but it was quite pleasant and much less demanding than the previous day. Covering 6.3km on the easy paced run I was still on my toes at 10.9kmh, gently throwing my legs and arms to see out the remainder of time of the clock. Id finished my run in time to even have a mess around with some resistance machines before heading off for a well needed re-fuel. Re-fuelling wasn’t something that existed for me when I was last running long distances, not really out of choice but lack of education about how important the right nutrients are for your body pre and post work out. Just to be clear, I’m not fuelling myself 100% correctly but I’m defiantly a lot more wiser that I need to at least eat something substantial to allow my body to benefit during running.

After finishing work on Tuesday I was a bit laid back and had only taken a glimpse of my training day, it was an interval run and I don’t think I quite read it properly until walking into the gym. It totalled to 54minutes and all of a sudden I had the best part of a hour run on my hands. Honestly, I felt tired just thinking about but there was only one way that was going to go away and that would be getting on with it. A twelve minute easy paced run would get me going followed by three minutes at threshold and a two minute jog, that sounds ok, but repeat the threshold and the jog x6, followed by another twelve minute easy jog to finish off. The last twelve minutes was a pleasure, be it a slow one. I knew by then that I need my rest day the following day having had three running days on the bounce.

Of course Wednesday flew by and Thursday I was ultra keen to get in the gym early doors, knowing I was going out later that night I hit the gym and its central heating for comfort for my next run. Similar to Tuesday this was a difficult run, yet I was more prepared this time. This 6 mile interval run was made up of 6 separate miles with 6 separate missions, a mile easy, mile steady and a mile high tempo repeating the steady and tempo followed by the finale of a mile easy. The last tempo mile was tough and demanding, I remember pushing myself knowing, like Tuesday, there was a fair few minutes of light running to follow. I did feel fresh and the rest day had defiantly been beneficial to me. The beauty of training in the morning is that it leaves you with an artificial rest evening which is a physiological advantage if your training the following evening, which I did.

Before Saturdays 10miler (above)

There was a reason for the evening session Friday, Thursday I had been out to a free bar and being January, who is going to turn down a free bar? More to the point I had to take this offer up as Friday and Saturday were going to be spent at home so it was the pleasure of an early weekend and a chance to have a drink with Em & her work mates. Great night, and we hit up at tasty fresh pizza place called Pizza Union in Kings Cross before heading home, worth a visit! So Fridays run was a 40minute interval comprising of 10mins easy, 10mins steady, 10mins hard and 10mins easy again to finish up. Tough one, and collectively a tough interval week, cleverly using minutes and miles to really push you to your limit. Although being tough, after completions it feels you with a great sense of achievement and confidence. So much so that Saturday morning I was keen to get up and after a small amount of work, head out for my big run of the week. This week was ten miles, two extra from last weeks eight so you have in your mind that in the space of 7 days your being pushed 2 miles further already. There really is no time to sit back or skip one of these runs when they are coming at you like this. I had an odd plan to try something I hadn’t before, just to mix things up a bit, save time in my weekend and get a Jacuzzi in after the long run. Deciding to run to the gym was a great idea, or shall I run home I thought? Nah, ill run there, Jacuzzi won. So I set out and according to the training it was an easy paced run, I made a real effort to not go OTT and actually pace myself at a comfortable speed, don’t think it was an easy speed but that wouldn’t be me. It was a pleasant morning and I ran through parks near mine and up towards Chessington, through Hook, Surbiton and on towards North Kingston.

 Arriving at the gym with 2.5miles to go (above)

“Never”, wasn’t my exact answer when id be asked if I was going to sign up for another marathon time and time again, but I was hardly enthusiastic, I’d avoid the question and I never answered yes. Between April 2014 and April 2015 I had no intentions of changing my mind either, however I was extremely excited to go and watch two or three friends running the 2015 London Marathon. We set out early and got to see Mark Conlan & Ben Roberts on a couple of occasions throughout the race. Seeing the effort they and all the other runners were putting in was so inspirational I had an automatic want for that feeling again, and to this event, the most popular marathon event in the world.

Making a real effort to keep an eye on the entry date for the 2016 London Marathon I was keen to apply for my place. Id thought with all the let downs before I was due a bit of ballot luck this time and I gave myself so confidence about automatic entry through the ballot. I was away in Berlin on a friends stag do when I got the email I was anticipating… Sorry you have not been successful… Blah blah blah… I suppose, being on a stag do was probably the best place to get rejected from something you had your heart set on? I didn’t dwell on it just passed the bad news home and had a fantastic weekend.

A couple of months on, with no real understanding of the charity space system and lack of motivation after the disappointing ballot result I was asked by one of my fathers friends how my running was going and was I involved in any upcoming marathons. I told him my bad news but with more of a relaxed feeling about it all by now, to my surprise he told me how he had a friend that worked for the charity Scope and how he would ask anyway just too see if there was anything they could do. I keenly agreed and we exchanged email address. Not expecting any comeback I was amazed when I got asked if id be interested in participating in the 2016 London Marathon on behalf of Scope, I was very pleased, except I wasn’t sure how real it was. How did it just come this easy, like, is that it? I signed up straight away and told my close friends and family about the turn of events before putting it to the back of my head for a couple of months knowing the planning and training would all soon come round for January.

I was on the plane to New York on the 4th Jan 2016 looking through a couple of training plans that I had printed of a couple of days before. I wasn’t really sure what I could achieve with this marathon, nor what I wanted from it. Nevertheless being competitive I obviously picked the toughest one (above), well, it the advanced programme out of the three or four options I had been reading through. Id always said, If I had taken on another marathon after Brighton 2014 it would b more of a fun run and not so competitive, I didn’t think that one through. I had also miss calculated the 16 week programme and before I had even started any training at all I had to cut the first week off. Fortunately those who know me will know that since my last major run I haven’t let myself go, still very active with running in the gym still a favourite of mine, albeit shorter distances or sprints. Emma, Sophie and I have spent the last 4 months going to the gym together and focusing highly on interval workouts and I guess neglected any duration training so when reading the plan, even for week 1/2, I knew I was in for a treat. 

I trained alone for my first session in the gym on Monday, it was a huge shock to the system, more than I had imagined it would be. I only had to complete a 35min steady run and that was something I was capable of doing six times a week a few years ago. I knew I would still be fine to do it, its just preparing yourself for it in a different way to HIIT. Still playing football on Sundays, maybe this had something to do with my Monday fatigue? With the run complete a steam room and jacuzzi was on the cards. Id missed a bit of company, something I didn’t think id be saying when it comes to me in the gym. I used to be very sole minded and was just happy to have myself and my headphones but I guess that having spent time working out with Soph and Em had left me feeling this way. Tuesday brung interval training so that wasn’t too out of the ordinary, with the exception on the forty-eight minute duration, but the difference in speed changing frequently helped keep my mind busy.

After three days of solid training a welcome rest from running saw me at Chelsea Wednesday evening, although I would maybe of preferred a run than being forced to draw with West Bromwich. Thursday after work I was back on my training and forty minute steady run was my mission, I carried on working on the treadmill in the gym, I guess an easy way to stay out of the cold. According the schedule Friday was meant to be a rest day but with work and Chelsea on Saturday I got back on the running machine on Friday afternoon, fortunately finishing work early made for a nice quiet gym and a ten minute jog followed by thirty minute steady paced run and a ten minute jog to finish up defiantly didn’t seem so bad, even though it was fifty minutes… Maybe it had something to do with being Friday? Friday night was a little more intense than the run and believe it or not we had our football team Christmas party. Yes, Christmas party in mid Jan, nothing Christmas-y about it, just an excuse to finally have a team drink.  Come Saturday, having decided to swap the run had proved to be a great move!

This left me with one final run to take up on Sunday to complete my first week, and the one I had been dreading the most all week, eight miles! I gave myself a great excuse not to have to even put my trainers on for this run. We was due to play football this morning so plan A was just to play instead of running… A cheeky decision but I knew with a short eight mile distance I could get away with this exchange. Something I wont be able to do in future weeks. Of course the game got cancelled as we woke up to a thin blanket of snow covering the grass and of course we didn’t find out until we got to the ground, typical. So returning home meant one thing, the run HAD to happen. Deflated about the idea of this run now I contemplated weather to run outside or in the gym… I mapped out a couple of runs online and decide to go for the outside. Richmond Park, one of my favourite and very commonly used parks for my previous running, made it a nice setting to reminisce past visits. It was cold though and as much a I remembered my hat, my gloves I didn’t and for the next hour my hands froze, will never learn.  

It was due to be an eight-mile easy paced run and I did set out to take it somewhat easy. Starting at Kingston Gate and working anti-clockwise a full circuit of the muddy pathways. Nearly making an embarrassing slip trying to overtake dog walkers on a muddy/icy section of pathway. Overall a great run though and with a slow start my pace soon picked up and had a great consistent 3/4 miles throughout the overall eight. Running at an average pace of 7:20 minutes per mile was a little faster than what I would of liked but I’ve never been one for sticking to the book.

I’m slowing getting back onto the idea of the longer runs now and as daunting as they look on the future schedule I’m trying not to think about them too much a remember how important it is to switch off and take in the run, counting the minutes down would be hell otherwise. Come to think of it I’m unsure if running a previous marathon is an advantage or a disadvantage? Its great having the experience of all the training but maybe I know too much now of what is really ahead.

As I mentioned earlier, I am running on behalf of Scope, and as well as all the amazing work they do, I wouldn’t even be running his marathon if it wasn’t for Scope. Thank you all for the kind donations so far. Check out the link below for my donation page.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/beng16