Well, that's another week of training over. This week's long run was 16 miles and at the 13 mile mark I couldn't imagine having to do the same distance again - which is of course, what I'll be doing in only 11 weeks time. But by the time I got to the end I could have done a bit more - usually I'm feeling like collapsing in a heap at that point! This long run was a bit cold but I kept my energy up with Jelly Babies on the way round!
The total mileage for this week was a little under 40 miles.
Last week I said that I'd tell you a bit about the different sessions I do each week. Training for a marathon is a balance between getting your body ready to run 26.2 miles at the right pace without destroying yourself in the process. So there is a mix of shorter runs which are run more quickly; middle distance runs done at marathon pace; and longer runs which are run more slowly but give you time on your feet.
I try to do intervals at 6:45 pace (6 mins 45 seconds a mile pace); tempo runs and hills at 7:00 pace; marathon pace runs at 8:30 pace and easy runs at 9:30 pace.
Intervals, hills and tempo runs all have a 1 mile warm up at the start and a 1 mile cool down at the end.
An interval session might be something like (1 mile fast, then 0.25 mile slow jog) x 3. Hills might be (0.2 miles up hill fast, then slow jog back down the hill) x 6. A tempo run is between 2.5 and 4.5 miles at tempo pace.
Long runs are gradually building up to 20 miles, and there will be three of these between now and April. The day before each of these long runs there is a marathon pace or easy run half as far. So this past weekend there was an 8 mile marathon pace run on Friday and then a 16 mile easy run on Saturday.
Then there is one easy 5 mile recovery run and two rest days each week.
So this week looks like:
Monday: 1 mile warm up + 3 mile tempo run + 1 mile warm down
Tuesday: 5 miles easy
Wednesday: 4 mile marathon pace run
Thursday: Off
Friday: 8 mile easy run
Saturday: 17 mile easy run
Sunday: Off
How do I know how fast to run for these different sessions? Am I running too fast or too slow? I'll tell you about that next week.
Remember that you can sponsor me at www.virgimoneygiving.com/keithtarring
