Week 3 – Marathon training – 17th January

I hope you have all had a good week and have managed to venture outside in the fresh air, despite the freezing conditions. Temperatures have been ranging from 0 – 4 degrees all week here but as yet no snow.

It’s been a busy time for both of us with work commitments, in fact we have been like ships passing in the night as I spent 3 days in the office in London.  I am a firm believer in the work life balance and when you have marathon training to fit in, the challenge is ensuring you still get to train no matter where work may take you, but that’s all part of the fun!

Training this week has gone very well and I am feeling very good and feel very motivated.  I started off on Monday with my usual gym session with a friend.  I usually dedicate the whole session to cycling 10 miles but due to the impending trip to London on Wednesday I decided to squeeze in a 5K run on the treadmill, just in case my training schedule did have to alter whilst I was away.  I do enjoy my treadmill sessions but it has been a while since I last ran on one and I get a bit competitive when I have a good runner each side of me which can be dangerous. Note to Sharon, do not race younger men, it will always end in tears – You naughty girlie!!!

In a friend’s words, “The hills were alive with the sound of Stroud & District Athletics Club” on Tuesday.  Having reminded Sabrina our running group leader about a particularly hard & hilly efforts route which we used to do many moons ago at the top of Rodborough Hill, at stages during the session I wished I had kept quiet.  All in all the training session was around 6 miles and consisted of a run up hill to Arundel Drive & Castlemead and 4 effort/speed loops on a downhill, flat and nasty uphill circular circuit with a headwind to contend with just after the hill climb.  I decided to try and keep the pace pretty consistent as did the rest of the group but gosh it was so so hard.  As they say, “No pain no gain” and boy were we all glad to get it over and done with. Let’s hope this sort of thing makes us all stronger when we come to run 26 miles.

On Wednesday, the alarm went off at 5:15am I took the 6:29am train to London to the office. In the evening it was a rest from exercise day and so I had a very enjoyable night out with my colleagues  Having said it was rest day, it is amazing in London how much walking you actually do.  I think during the day I covered 4 miles with my suitcase & heavy rucksack in tow, up and down stairs and escalators on the underground and backwards and forwards from work to my hotel and back and out in the evening.  This alone must be a good workout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a day in the office on Thursday and despite all the pressure to head straight to the pub opposite work from my colleagues, I managed to escape at 5:30pm for a 5 miler from Tower Hill to Westminster/Big Ben and back.  The Thames west way path running along the side of the river is highly recommended if you are in London.  It is well lit and lots of runners use the route. You have to avoid pedestrians and uneven pavements but apart from that it’s fab and what a great way to see the sights of our capital city.   It was wonderful to see all the buildings, bridges and London eye in their night time glory.  Absolutely fantastic run, I think varied runs like this will be the secret to ensuring training does not become boring as the weeks go by.

Returned home from London at 9pm on Friday feeling pretty exhausted, as much as I love London I was glad to be back in the Stroud Valleys.  Having recovered from the busy week on Saturday afternoon Graeme & I decided to head back down to Frampton on Severn for our weekend long run.   For Graeme,  this was his first run in a couple of weeks after going over on his ankle so it is fair to say he was a bit anxious about going out and was not sure how things would go.  We decided to run a loop of the green first out to the Sharpness canal just in case he encountered problems but I am very pleased to report all went well and we ended up running 8 miles after we headed out onto the Frampton 10K course.  The only hazard we encountered today was some black ice and a side stepping horse!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We both thoroughly enjoyed the run in still but very cold conditions, pacing with Graeme now in tow is proving to be interesting  9/min miles – 9/30’s is the threshold we are playing around with.

Have a good week ahead,

Sharon