Marathon Update - 13 Weeks to go

Last week's training went well - even with the snow that arrived on Friday. Originally forecast for about 12pm on Friday, I moved my runs around hoping to get my long 14 mile run in on Friday morning before the snow. The snow came early, starting about 8.45am, but I still managed to get out and do 14.2 miles - fresh snow provides enough grip for a steady pace.

The snow was still sufficiently crunchy and fresh on Saturday morning to allow for a 'slow' 7 miles. The snow might be a real pain, but it does make for some beautiful scenery - my 7 miles included 2 local parks, one of which has a few minutes amongst the trees - I could almost be running in the woods!

So last week's training was not affected by the weather, with all 5 sessions going to plan and a total of 34 miles run.

Fresh snow during Sunday means that Monday morning's run might be able to go ahead - but after that I'm expecting the pavements to turn into ice rinks - like they were on Sunday morning.

This week there are again 5 sessions planned but this is a 'cut back' week in the schedule. Every few weeks there is a slightly easier week to allow the body to recover and adjust to the ever longer and longer runs. The long run this week is cut back to 'only' 10 miles, but there is more emphasis on the shorter faster runs - not good in the snow. I might have to make enquiries at local gyms to find out if any of them do a one week membership deal that only involves using their treadmills. Looking at the forecast it seems that the ice is certainly going to be around for most of the week.