Fitting it in

I'm doing well, and surprising myself. I'm not sticking to the Marathon Plan word for word, but I'm juggling the runs round my other commitments to make sure that I stick to it as closely as possible.

So after last week's shuffling round trips to London, this week I'm trying to rearrange my schedule to accommodate a bank holiday, a half marathon and birthday cake. The actual plan is:

Monday - cross training
Tuesday - 3 miles
Wednesday - 6 miles
Thursday - 3 miles
Friday - rest
Saturday - 6 miles
Sunday - 11 miles

What I suspect it will actually look like is:

Monday - 6 miles (done - and actually nearer 7, taking account of the bank holiday to get one of the long runs for the week in)
Tuesday - 3 miles
Wednesday - 3, or possibly a bit longer depending how I feel
Thursday - 3 miles maximum (possibly just rest)
Friday - rest
Saturday - rest
Sunday - half marathon

I'm torn on Wednesday between doing the length run I'm meant to do or giving myself more time to rest before the half by doing no more than three. And then the week after I'll be trying to simultaneously recover from the half, rest before a 10k and get at least one decent run in to maintain my marathon training mileage. Could be interesting! And the main Wednesday dilemma is that it will be my birthday so I won't be forcing myself to do anything I don't fancy! Plus the unknown of whether I'll need to go down to London with work at any point during the week.

I've finally got round to getting myself a Camelbak. I know that as my long runs get longer and the weather gets warmer (hmm, not so sure about that one at the moment!) hydration will be more important, and I found an offer for a free one if I subscribe to a magazine I read sometimes anyway. The cost of the subscription over the year is only the same as the Camelbak, and I'd probably have bought most of the copies anyway. Or that's how I justify it to myself!

Now all I need to do is to make the great HRM/SDM decision. I'm still wavering about how many features I actually need (if indeed I need any!), so still haven't committed to placing an order.

Plus I need new running shoes - my current ones are heading towards 450 miles fast (they'll be there by Sunday probably), which only really gives me a couple of weeks before they hit the 500 mile replacement mark.

9.7 miles

This morning's run was good, and not so good.

First of all the good. Since I got back from Spain I've been struggling with any run over about 5k. On Monday I did 5k. On Wednesday I ran to work and while I ran for the first 5k or so, after that I switched to more of a run/walk. I blamed the extra weight of my bag, and that was possibly justified, but I still took walk breaks.

Then on Thursday I did my canal run from the gym. I ran up to my turning point and started off back, but again after about 5k I started to hurt (which I think was partly from running with my bag the day before - it was more upper body aches than my legs or my lungs), and again I switched to a run/walk routine to get me back to the gym, which is something I've never done on that route before.

And yesterday I put off my run until late afternoon because of various jobs I needed to do in the morning. I left time after having my lunch (moroccan spaghetti with chickpeas and tomatoes), but possibly not enough. I ran on the treadmill because the weather wasn't appealing, and because I wanted to run at a controlled marathon pace. Just before the 5k mark I had an uncontrollable need to go to the loo, and although I got back on the treadmill after cleansing my bowels a little, and got up to 6.5k, it seemed like the 5k mark was taunting me, saying that I couldn't run further than that after my week off.

Well, take that, 5k. I managed 9.7 miles today and, although I set myself marks of places where I'd allow myself to walk (an uphill stretch near the end, on the basis that my schedule only called for 9 miles), I ran the whole thing. Woo hoo! I've run further than that before, but it's still nice to get back into my stride after a bit of a dodgy spell.

BUT, I ran a lot slower than I have been doing recently. Partly I suppose it's because the route I run from home is hillier than the route I run from the gym up the canal, but still, I was a good half minute per mile slower than my normal long run pace. This isn't a complete disaster because I'm still within my target of 45 - 90 seconds slower than marathon pace, but very definitely at the slower end of that rage. I'm glad I did, because I can afford to go a bit slower, and it helped me get to the end without taking that walk break, but I hope I'm not slowing down too much just yet as I really want to run a good time in my upcoming half marathon and 10k before starting to concentrate on the longer and longer runs marathon training will call for.

Still, the way I felt yesterday lunchtime I'm amazed I managed to do one of my scheduled runs, let alone both of them, so that has to be a victory. I just hope that running starts to feel more natural again soon!

Postponement

If you're a devoted follower of the side bar you may be expecting some race updates from my Wednesday 5k and a preview of my Sunday half marathon. Well, things don't always go to plan.

First the half marathon. I only sent off my cheque the day before the closing date, and I didn't hear anything for ages. My cheque wasn't cashed, and I guess I knew deep down that I hadn't got a place. Sure enough, when I got back from holiday I had a letter saying that it had filled up before the closing date and I didn't have a place.

But, that may well be a good thing, because running 13 miles on Sunday isn't something I fancy right now. This week has been manic. Since I got back off holiday on Saturday evening I've hardly had a spare moment, and I've worked late pretty much every night. I worked late on Wednesday and missed my 5k (given the rain I'm not entirely gutted, but it's still an event with a lovely atmosphere, and the first race I really did, so I'd have liked to have gone anyway). I did manage to get some pre work runs in on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, but I couldn't manage the post work race.

Anyway, I have a place in my back up half marathon in a couple of weeks (although I realised shortly after entering that it's at 9am in Blackpool the morning after a friend's housewarming party, so I'm actually consider deferring my entry and not doing a half at this stage of the year). And I'm still getting my training runs in. Not to mention the big 10k in London in a couple of weeks which I'm really looking forward to.

Pacing

I love the lighter days! This morning the sun woke me up at 5.30, before my alarm went off, so I caught the earlier bus to the gym. That let me fit in a long run that I won't be able to do at the weekend rather than the scheduled 5 miler. I think there will be definite advantages to getting my marathon training done over summer!

First of all the good. I did a 9.1 mile run today and ran it at an almost even 9 minute mile pace throughout. I don't have anything really to measure my pace by as I run (no fancy GPS system... yet!), I just decide how long I'm going to run (today around 80 minutes) and then measure how far I went on the internet when I get back to work out my pace. I know I do pretty much even or slightly negative splits by recording the time I turn round (weekdays I tend to run up the canal for half my target time and then turn round and run back the same route), and I have a rough idea of distance, but never anything exact to judge whether I need to speed up or slow down. I really just go by effort rather than an actual target pace, and I can usually sustain the same pace for the full distance (or at least each half takes me the same amount of time, within 30 seconds or so).

Which leads me to a question. Every training programme I've ever seen says that the long runs should be at an easy pace up to 1:30 per mile slower than target marathon pace. Well, I do find my 9 minute miles relatively easy on runs between 9 and 12 miles. Not EASY, but sustainable and relatively comfortable. But my target marathon pace is around 8:30 per mile, which seems pretty close to the pace I'm already running at. (By comparison, my pace in my last 10k was 7:41, so 8:30 seems achievable for the longer distance).

So do I slow down on those long runs in an attempt to make them even easier, even though I'm showing no ill effects to date by running them at what I perceive to be a fairly easy pace? Will I naturally slow down as my long runs get longer? Or do I keep on running them at this pace and adjust my target marathon pace so that it's a bit faster than my current aim? (hint - I'm not sure at all about the last one of those options - my target pace would be GFA if I could sustain it all the way round which is a challenging enough target as it is!)

By way of comparison, I ran my training runs for my last half marathon at about 10 minute miles and managed 8:51 on the day. It will be interesting to see what I do in my next one now my training runs are almost as fast as the race pace I ran that day.

To be honest, it might be a bit of a pointless question, because at the moment I have few real ways to measure my pace on my outdoor runs. I run at the speed I run and I take it from there. But I have some runs on the schedule at "marathon pace" and it would be useful to know what that might be if I run them on the treadmill where I can set it more accurately!