Anna writes:
Even though I’m not following a plan, I’d intended these next two weeks to be the higher mileage ones of training, then two weeks of tapering before the race. I work for a University which closes for two extra days over Easter meaning a bit less squeezing running round medical appointments and work. And hopefully a bit of extra sleep to balance out the drug induced fatigue of the week before.
The first week started fine with gym, a short run and a just over 8 mile commute home with Kat and Nick. I’d planned on running the Maidenhead 10 on Good Friday and actually trying to put a bit of effort and speed into the run which is something I’ve not really done all year given the pain issues I was having pre surgery in February and then going straight into upping miles for this abridged marathon training. Unfortunately this plan went awry as I spent Thursday in A and E, I left there at 2am Friday morning meaning I’d have to be in Maidenhead six hours later; clearly not a sensible thing to do. It also put pay to the social plans I’d had that evening and the next day with a friend too sadly and wasn’t a great way to spend my day off work. Frustratingly I’d entered Maidenhead as a run I might have been able to do a bit faster because I wasn’t having treatment that Friday being a bank holiday and I find it a bit more challenging to run with higher impact in the days afterwards so thought that was a good option. I managed a short run later that day but it was hard and much more painful than running has been for a while, curling up in a ball in Elthorne definitely crossed my mind but I made the mile home regardless.
Resetting over the weekend. The next day I skipped parkrun to run 10 miles but much slower than I would have run Maidenhead. It was finally sunny rather than raining which made it much nicer and thankfully I felt a lot better. One of the more irritating things is not knowing beforehand which runs are going to flare symptoms and pain. On Easter Monday I’d planned a twenty mile run which Nick had agreed to run with me. I actually ran a twenty mile run for Berlin marathon three days after getting out of hospital with Nick too which is a deja vu I’d really like to stop repeating. Although I was well enough to run both or I wouldn’t have and started them as a let’s try and see what happens and I’ll stop if I need to, it’s still nice to have someone there just in case when it’s quite so close to being unwell. I met Nick at Gunnersbury and I’d planned a route that went along the North side of the river to Putney Bridge, then uphill through Putney Heath, Wimbledon common and into Richmond park then back to the river at Mortlake. We did a small diversion in Sheen so I could pick up my number for the Towpath 10 at Up and Running. It’s a route I’d repeat as even on a sunny bank holiday it wasn’t too busy and there are places along the route with water fountains and toilets. Clearly the route I chose through Wimbledon was more off the beaten track or someone had never been there before as one woman commented: “people actually run here, what the f*ck” as we passed her jumping around on a particularly puddly path along the Common. Good to know we’re selling the hobby and trail running as enjoyable to others! Personally the traily bit through the wood in Wimbledon was one of my favourite bits and running with someone the miles tick by without noticing as you’re chatting away. As all long runs (or short) should, we finished with brunch at Beehive.
I’d managed to end up bunching runs again so Garmin showed 46.5 miles in seven days. I’ve always been quite a low mileage runner but not sticking to fixed schedules because of work/ life and generally preferring to flexible does mean I can unintentionally do a lot of back to back miles. Going over 40 miles a couple of times in a seven day block gives me a bit more marathon confidence even though it’s a bit arbitrary and a lot lower than many others do.
I did a weights class the day after twenty miles and the legs still felt ok though more achey than usual. The rest of the week were a muddy five miler and a parkrun with my mum’s dog Amber, she loves running and loves parkrun as she gets so much attention. On Sunday I ran the club champs race of the Towpath 10, it was small but well organised and it’s nice to turn up to local races fifteen minutes before the start with no queues for bag drop or toilets. About as far from what London marathon pre race prep could be. The race was a bit windy with a headwind from Storm Kathleen for the last few miles but it was good fun and an out and back gave an opportunity to cheer all the other Eagles running. I’ve consistently come fourth woman in almost all my club champs races this year and the towpath was no different, may be it should be my lucky number. A much smaller race meant I was also second senior woman overall. The towpath ten rounded my mileage for this week to 40 miles.
For the next two weeks I’ll be stopping the strength classes and taking it a bit easier, with some more street-O and run commuting with the Paulines but no more long runs. I’ve only run three 15+ mile runs so hopefully it’s enough to get round the marathon without the last six miles feeling like a death march. Quite a lot of people have asked how the training is going and hopefully it’s gone as well as it could have in such a short training block. The start times and event guide for London landed in my inbox at the end of this week so it’s all starting to feel very real now and I’ll be heading off to the expo next week.