Week 5 – Marathon training – 30th January
Hi everyone,
This week has flown by and as we increase the weekend long runs by a mile a week, we are now celebrating our first training run in double figures, yippee!
It’s been another difficult, business as usual week for both of us juggling work trips away with evening training but as they say, “Where there is a will, there is a way”.
After a rest day on Monday, it was the weekly Stroud Athletics Club hill efforts training session on Tuesday evening. It was absolutely atrocious weather, driving rain and wind. The sort of evening when you just want to baton down the hatches and watch TV but as usual, lots of mad runners showed up to run the streets of Stroud – we are a crazy lot, that’s for sure!
We were lucky to have our old friend, an experienced coach and marathon runner, Mario leading our run and what a cracker of a training session he had in store for us. After a run out to the start, we all did ten Kenyan hill efforts on a steep 100 metre climb and extra loop around an undulating circulate on Rodborough Hill. Now I am not frightened to say, there were times when my mind was screaming “You cannot do this, you are only going to do seven” but mind over matter and I gritted my teeth and got the job done along with everybody else – phew what an achievement. I am hoping that this sort of training will make me stronger when times get tough in Edinburgh in a few months.
Wednesday and back on the 6:29am train for two days work in London. With tired and heavy legs from the previous day’s hill efforts I was in desperate need to jump on a bike to spin my legs out but alas no bikes at the Premier Inn so I resorted to an after work 5K recovery run over Tower Bridge and onto the Thames Path heading east this time and then back past City Hall and round in a loop over London Bridge. It made me realise how much I need the cross training on the bike, it loosens up the legs so well. Returned to the Stroud Valleys at 8pm on Thursday so missed my Stroud AC session unfortunately.
Fortunately, the high winds of storm Gertrude and driving rain had subsided in time for our Saturday run. We are loving the flat routes around Frampton, so many roads to explore so Graeme planned the route using ViewRanger this week. The advantage to using this app is that you can plot the route using multiple waypoints and the app totals up your planned distance. This was helpful because we don’t want to overcook our runs quite yet. So with the help of our technology a great ten miler starting once again from the Bell pub on the green was organised.
It is fair to say I was a little worried about this run because last week’s had not gone to plan. So this time, fully hydrated and armed with some motivational music and one headphone in my ear, we set off along the wet and muddy lanes. Whilst we start off running together trying to stay together all the way is still an issue and puts me under unnecessary stress. Graeme is definitely more comfortable running at 7:30/8:00 min mile pace which is too quick for me for the long distance. So we have therefore decided during the marathon he will have to run ahead.
It was a perfect day for our first run in double figures, beautiful sunshine, 7 degrees but a head wind to contend with in parts. The run around Saul, Framilode and a loop of a lovely rural farming hamlet called Milton End where we were chased by angry geese was absolutely idyllic.
It was lovely to see snowdrops and daffodils today the seasons are muddled. The long straight road which takes you down to the river Severn and the Passage pub and fish restaurant at Arlingham is great.
When we reached the end and the river we had a very brief stop and Graeme tested out his new Joby Gpod mini magnetic tripod for the shot below.
We experienced a little bit of an incline on the way back but with the wind behind us at this stage, we couldn’t complain. So, ten miles in the bag and we both came back with a smile on our face. We felt strong at the end and pleased with our run. Motivational music in one ear certainly helps, thanks to some blasts from the past from Colonel Abrahams, Level 42, Jungle, Graeme’s 90’s electro/dance collections & Kate Bush! I will be sorting out my play list for future runs!!
