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| Me (right) finishing Abingdon in 2011 Picture: SussexSportPhotography.com |
It was a relief to finally get it under way. I was very surprised to get the acceptance notification in October and have been swinging between 'itching to get started' and 'what have I done' ever since.
But it started well. I have decided to roughly follow the Advanced training plan found in Runners World. It felt a bit cocky to go for Advanced but I am prepared to put in five days training and my 10km times show that I'm a decent runner these days.
I say roughly follow the plan because I have to work out what I can fit in and when, and a rigid plan worked out by someone who doesn’t know me or my situation is not going to work. So I am following the intensity of the plan but working out on which days I should do which activity.
I started on Sunday, January 4 with a long run. I like to get my long run out of the way on the first day as it takes the time pressure off the rest of the week.
My alarm rang at 6.45am and I donned a head torch and headed out. It was stunning. I started in the frost-spangled dark watching my breath form dense clouds in the beam of my light and soon the sky came to life with a stunning light blue with orange-tinged contrails arcing over my head.
It sounds poetic and it was. I startled a family of deer as I ran through woodland near Youlbury Scout Camp, was mocked by some cocky pheasants and challenged to race by a squirrel who scampered along the branches high above me.
My run even brought sunshine into my kids’ mornings as they loved the sight of Daddy walking into the house with two inch icicles hanging from his beard.
It was a great start and my pace was good. I completed 19.2km at 4.38min/km pace which was pretty satisfying. This is only my second marathon and follows Abingdon Marathon in 2011. I was pleased with my 3.37 then but this time I am hoping to sneak under that magical 3.15 that would make me Good For Age and guarantee a ballot-free entry for the next year.
After the good start that I did nice steady runs home from work one day and back in the following morning. That should have been 13.9km each but as I hit 9km on the evening run a cheery toot told me that my wife and kids were passing in the car and common sense told me that this was fate telling me not to go too big too soon.
I played squash on Tuesday. Probably not the best sport for a marathon runner in training as it’s pretty high impact but what can I say, I love it! I also think that all that lunging must be good for the legs.
I forced myself to rest on Wednesday and then smashed out an intense interval session on the treadmill. A good build with 6 threshhold minutes in the middle with a solid cool down. It was inspiring to run so fast and have to force myself to stop.
I was pretty wiped on Friday so settled for an easy five km followed by a 15 minute stretch in the gym and then closed the week off with a 5km at Harcourt Hill Park Run. I arrived nearly a minute late but still ran as fast as I could in the high winds and ploughed through the field.
All-in-all a very satisfying week which totalled six runs, racking up just over 38 miles.
I didn’t keep a training record of my Abingdon Marathon prep but I’m pretty sure that I only hit that mileage in about week 9 or 10 and the interval work was never as high quality.
It’s a long way to go but exciting to get off to a good start.
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