The Final Blog
Well
somehow through luck or through expert coaching (probably luck given
those options), I made it through the marathon!! And it felt like the
longest 4 hours of my life. Weirdly the first half felt quite good and
fairly comfortable which I didn’t really expect, but it started to get a
little more stressful at around 16 miles when my ankle decided it
wanted to make the experience even harder than it had to be, this
brought about the question of whether I’ll get under 4 hours or not. But
down to good support a very big crowd and dad talking all the way
round, we made it to 26 miles and the last .2 felt as good and as easy
as anything (the medal was a nice touch too). After we’d found Kev and
our support crew we headed straight for food and a pint (and then a few
more pints). I’d say it was (just about) worth the 5 months of getting
up early every weekend to run in the cold for 2-3 hours but not doing
another one any time soon!!
Marathon Training Week 14
Another full rest week was not what I had planned but after seeing the physio on Monday he said it was the best thing to do. Luckily there seems to be no permanent damage to the knee (as it stands) but it does now mean I’ll have to go into the marathon without the training I or Dad wanted to have behind me. Not a good couple of weeks but hopefully will improve before the race
Marathon Training Week 13
Urm, this week didn’t go to plan this week Saturday was bigged up to be the final ‘long’ run before the marathon, a 22mile route from Newbury to Hungerford (with a little loop in the middle) and then back. However unfortunately as we got into Hungerford (about 10 miles in) I felt something tightening and pulling in my knee I spoke to Dad and after running on it for a mile and it starting to hurt a lot worse I stopped and walked to Kev’s to get picked up. Dad’s going to arrange a physio appointment for next week.
Marathon Training Week 12
As my birthday was the Monday of this week and I had a family party on the Saturday I took an executive decision to make this a rest week and not really run much at all (only to make sure I’m well rested for next week of course). So unfortunately not much to report on this week, other than convincing Dad and Kev to do a round of Jäger-bombs!!
Marathon Training Week 11
Finally Hares!!! Picked the wrong week with it being hills good to see people and have a sociable run.
Then after last week I decided it’d be best not to do parkrun,
so instead opted to cycle round while Kev and Dad run for 15 miles as a warm-up for Reading Half.
As you could probably guess, I’m now going to talk about the half;
I took 4 minutes off my PB and 10 minutes off last years Reading half,
so very happy with that!! Hopefully see you lot on Tuesday.
Marathon Training Week 10
No Hares again this week as Dad’s car decided to not work (technical term).
So had to wait till Saturday for another attempt at parkrun, this time coming in at 20:17
(sounds good but I went on to regret that).
As Dad was doing Bath half this week Kev decided he’d be urm? Nice?
And take me out on the 16 miler from hell. Apparently using all your energy the day before a long run isn’t a good plan!
Marathon Training Week 9
Not much really happened in the week (with regard to running) this week so apparently had to make up for it at the weekend.
Meaning
when I got home from work at half past 10 I got told I’m running up to
and back from parkrun the next morning on the plus side I did do a
Newbury course PB at 20:48!
Then on to a very painful 10ish miles with Dad on the Sunday.
Marathon Training Week 8
This week started off with a cheeky 6 mile out and about run with hares,
then I was told we’re properly pushing the mileage with a stupidly mountainous 20 miler around Welford,
Kintbury and finished off down the canal towards Newbury (bloody stupid idea)
Marathon Training Week 7
As
I was away with my girlfriend this week I was very much hoping I could
get away without having to do a run; I was wrong. I was ‘strongly
encouraged’ by dad to do at least 13 miles in the week. My girlfriend
(knowing this) said she’d cycle alongside me as I ran, this was slightly
cute and fun sounding however involved us looking like muppets running
around Loughborough uni (did it in 1:48 so I suppose it was worth it in
the end (thank you Hannah)).
Marathon Training Week 5 & 6
This
week was very similar to last week’s efforts except this week we were
(finally) able to make it to hares on Tuesday for intervals, put way too
much effort in trying to race Lee after the 16 miles on Sunday and
ended up not being able to walk properly for the few days following
because of this I didn’t run again until the next Sunday when Dad, Kev
and I went for another 16 (slightly hillier) mile run which arguable
went even better as we did it a minute quicker.
In week 6 we couldn’t make it to hares so me and dad went for a run in Newbury and then didn’t run again until the week after.
Marathon Training Week 4
So
there were only two runs to talk about this week, and relatively slow
5k Tuesday night (as we couldn’t make it to hares again , then we were
supposed to up my 11 mile effort from the week before up to 14; this
didn’t quite go to plan as Kev brought some incredibly effective drugs
(torq gels ) and our mentality switched from “why are we here?” to “why
stop at 14??” Almost instantly and so pushed on for a 16 mile run in a
little over 2 hours, which can never be sniffed at onto intervals on
Tuesday.
Marathon Training Week 3
This
week was a much greater improvement on last week’s efforts, on Tuesday
as dad had an ‘injured’ foot couldn’t make it to the club so did an easy
10k by myself, then on Thursday I was told to go for another 6-8mile
run by which was much faster and probably worth it in the end. Finally
after a 12 hour working day I was told to go to bed as I had an 11 mile
run on the following morning; the only positive to this being me getting
photographic evidence of Dad (and Kev) out for a run. I only signed up
for one run in April, not this “training” I’ve been told to do. On to
next week I suppose
Marathon Training Week 2
With
London now 14 weeks away (getting less and less excited, and much more
nervous) I was told I had to do three runs, obviously a great run with
you guys on Tuesday, college work prevented the second run and had to go
solo for an 8 miler on Saturday as Dad wimped out. My watch died on me
at 5.23km so to be perfectly honest I’ve got no idea whether or not it
was in fact 8 miles; but I know it was fairly close so hopefully that’ll
be good enough. I’m sure it’ll be another good run on Tuesday and a
horrible long run next weekend (as well as one or two ‘recovery’ runs).
Will try to get some photo evidence of Dad in ‘action’ to make it just a
little more worth it.
Marathon Training Week 1
In
15 weeks’ time I’ll be half way through my first marathon, and
hopefully all will be well and I won’t regret the lack of running in
this first week! Apparently “rest” has always been an important part of
my dad’s training plans, and I can see the benefit in that, however we
need to make sure we don’t take it to the extreme (for instance, Dad
needs to lose half a stone at least 🙂 ). Unfortunately we missed the
Hares run on Tuesday, so we forced ourselves to at least do 3 miles on
Wednesday. Very much a case of just getting out on the feet, as it was
the first run since the Hares Christmas run. (Note previous comment
about plenty of rest!). Kev and Dad did their stupid “lets run up Coombe
for a laugh” run on Saturday, fortunately I was working.
Some good
news on the mileage front tho. Dad and I finished the week this morning
with a steady, but hilly, 7 miler in 59 mins. It hurt more than it
should, and I can safely say my training has properly started.
Hopefully see you all Tuesday 🙂