My marathon is four - three and a half! - weeks away. I have the final 20 mile long run to complete this weekend and then I'll be tapering and trying to deal with the twitchy legs and excess energy. I am not overly worried about the actual race - not yet, anyway - I know that having completed all this training, there is no doubt in my mind that I will run well. As with Paris, I mentally completed the marathon long before race day; the day itself with all its satisfaction and emotions was merely a reward for having worked so hard.
And yet, despite talking about "all this training" and "working hard", I appear to have pulled my usual trick of not really following the programme at all, certainly in terms of mid-week sessions. A few weeks ago I decided to drop my Tuesday lunchtime runs. Apart from the first two or three weeks of the programme, I haven't done any Friday mid-length runs at all. This has left me with Monday night circuits, Tuesday yoga, Thursday fast 5 miles, and the weekend long run. And yet - or perhaps because of this - my training seems to be going exceptionally well. I have completed every long run at 10 minute miles, and arrived relatively fresh and happy at the finish line. I have run three PBs in recent weeks: one in a ten mile race and two during the local running club league. For these latter two I brought my time down from well over 40 minutes to a nauseating 38:36 for five miles (seven-something minute/mile pace which for this marathon snail is quite astonishing). Progress has been inexorable, and my increasingly long endurance runs do not seem to have killed my speed.
I have, however, reached a slight hiccup in my training: I have found myself travelling unexpectedly to the UK for an undetermined length of time, the reasons for which I may explain later. This has meant I've had to sort of wing it - I dragged myself through a psychologically tough 5 mile run in unfamiliar territory somewhere in a London park on Thursday, and at the weekend struggled through an extremely muddy 12 miles somewhere outside London which was tough on the legs and mind. I have always found it difficult to run well in an unknown environment. So why on earth, one might ask, have I chosen an overseas marathon? I don't anticipate this being a problem - it wasn't in Paris or other races I've completed abroad, including the Portsmouth and Geneva half marathons. I think unfamiliar race routes are manageable for me in a way that unfamiliar training routes are not.
This sudden change of environment comes at quite an inconvenient time for me in terms of marathon training. I am particularly worried about the final 20 mile long run, because it will be on the same slightly uneven terrain as the 12 miles, which I found exhausting. But perhaps I will discover that I flourish under unforeseen challenges. I don't feel I really have a choice in the matter, because running yet another poor race is not an option for me. I feel I am now in the all-too familiar danger zone. It was at this point in two of my previous programmes that it all went tits up: missing out on Milan after twisting my ankle the week following the first 20 miles; and missing out on Dublin no. 2 of 3 after my IT band flared up, again after completing the first 20 miles. The ghosts of these unfulfilled marathons still haunt me, particularly around this time in the programme, and I would very much like to never again find myself running 20 miles for no reward. It's not something I enjoy. But I do feel that I've performed my training to the best of my ability, given my circumstances, and that's all I can really do. I just hope it's enough.
And yet, despite talking about "all this training" and "working hard", I appear to have pulled my usual trick of not really following the programme at all, certainly in terms of mid-week sessions. A few weeks ago I decided to drop my Tuesday lunchtime runs. Apart from the first two or three weeks of the programme, I haven't done any Friday mid-length runs at all. This has left me with Monday night circuits, Tuesday yoga, Thursday fast 5 miles, and the weekend long run. And yet - or perhaps because of this - my training seems to be going exceptionally well. I have completed every long run at 10 minute miles, and arrived relatively fresh and happy at the finish line. I have run three PBs in recent weeks: one in a ten mile race and two during the local running club league. For these latter two I brought my time down from well over 40 minutes to a nauseating 38:36 for five miles (seven-something minute/mile pace which for this marathon snail is quite astonishing). Progress has been inexorable, and my increasingly long endurance runs do not seem to have killed my speed.
I have, however, reached a slight hiccup in my training: I have found myself travelling unexpectedly to the UK for an undetermined length of time, the reasons for which I may explain later. This has meant I've had to sort of wing it - I dragged myself through a psychologically tough 5 mile run in unfamiliar territory somewhere in a London park on Thursday, and at the weekend struggled through an extremely muddy 12 miles somewhere outside London which was tough on the legs and mind. I have always found it difficult to run well in an unknown environment. So why on earth, one might ask, have I chosen an overseas marathon? I don't anticipate this being a problem - it wasn't in Paris or other races I've completed abroad, including the Portsmouth and Geneva half marathons. I think unfamiliar race routes are manageable for me in a way that unfamiliar training routes are not.
This sudden change of environment comes at quite an inconvenient time for me in terms of marathon training. I am particularly worried about the final 20 mile long run, because it will be on the same slightly uneven terrain as the 12 miles, which I found exhausting. But perhaps I will discover that I flourish under unforeseen challenges. I don't feel I really have a choice in the matter, because running yet another poor race is not an option for me. I feel I am now in the all-too familiar danger zone. It was at this point in two of my previous programmes that it all went tits up: missing out on Milan after twisting my ankle the week following the first 20 miles; and missing out on Dublin no. 2 of 3 after my IT band flared up, again after completing the first 20 miles. The ghosts of these unfulfilled marathons still haunt me, particularly around this time in the programme, and I would very much like to never again find myself running 20 miles for no reward. It's not something I enjoy. But I do feel that I've performed my training to the best of my ability, given my circumstances, and that's all I can really do. I just hope it's enough.
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