Week 10, here....I....COME!
So, I’ve got 9 full weeks of marathon training under my belt. And it feels GOOD!
As ever this week started with a rest day, and then Tuesday was 8 miles at marathon pace. When I checked my garmin at the end of the run, the average pace was 8:49, and I know there were a few 9:30 min miles in there. I REALLY need to work on my pacing because wanting to chuck myself into the Thames 5 miles into a training run because I’m running too fast isn’t very helpful to my confidence in my ability to hold a 9 min mile!
I managed to redeem myself slightly on Wednesday at the track where the session was 1km reps with one minute recovery in-between. As ever, I started too fast (the pace was meant to be 5k pace) and with a PB of 24:14 I probably wasn’t much faster than where I was meant to be, but the first km of 4:40 I knew it was going to be painful in the final few reps! However, I hung on by the skin of my teeth and only lost 4 seconds on the last kilometre.
I swapped Thursday night’s 45 min steady run for a 60 min spin class and I loved it! Mixing up the training was a great feeling, I pushed really hard towards the end of the class and was pleasantly surprised by the power in my legs (it was a clever bike that measures your watt output). More than anything, it was nice to be in a group environment and working hard alongside others. And maybe getting just a little bit competitive!
Friday was a rest day, Saturday was Parkrun and 2 easy miles, and for the first time in ages I let myself off ‘racing’ and wanted to run and try and enjoy myself, not push hard, experience pain, and ultimately end up disappointed that I didn’t run faster. I came in at 24:55, was always running well within myself and picked up the pace for a sub 8 minute mile at the end. And the most important thing: I’m pretty sure I was smiling all the way!
I’ve neglected yoga of late, so when Ceri found a new yoga studio opening up in Peckham, Yogarise, offering a weekend of free trial classes, it seemed daft not to go. And OH I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LOVE IT! It’s only been about 3 weeks, and the class was a relatively gentle Hatha Flow but it felt so good. So I’ve taken advantage of their introductory offer and booked myself into 4 classes over the next fortnight. I might live to regret the 90 minute Rocket class the night before a 10 mile run, but oh well! I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the long run!
In other news, I collected the shoes I’m going to run the marathon in on Saturday and it made me strangely emotional. Has that happened to anyone else?!
And Sunday’s 145 minute run was bang on a ten minute mile all the way, and I decided to experiment with real food, rather than gels, so packed 2 Jaffa Cakes with me as an experiment. I always suffer with a rumbling tummy about 10 miles into a race, and I have to say, the Jaffa’s were a win! Nothing untoward happened with my tummy and (thank goodness!) I don’t know whether I’d be able to happily trot along whilst scoffing them at any higher pace, but on a steady run, when I can, I’d much prefer to eat something solid I think. I run all my marathon pace runs with gels for ease and speed, and to practise fuelling at that pace but I don’t think solids have an adverse effect, although I’d hardly call my experiment with 2 Jaffa’s exhaustive research!
So, to sum up: solid food and slow running gets a big tick from me, I ran farther than I’ve ever run before in one go and nothing fell off (big mental gains), track sessions always hurt but always make me happy, drop the pace and crack a smile when the going gets tough, and I must not neglect yoga again.
Total weekly mileage for VLM Training Week 9: 31.6 miles
Over and out. Run well all!
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