Week 15 of 20 weeks to sub 2:20?

M 12 miles (6:38mm), 6 miles (7:15mm)

T 8.5 miles (6:50mm), 5 miles (7:01mm)

W 17.5 miles inc 24 mins, 18 mins, 12 mins, 6 mins, 3 mins (3mins) (5:46mm), 5 miles (7:26mm)

T 10 miles (7:12mm), 6 miles (7:24mm)

F 6 miles (7:38mm)

S 10 miles (6:55mm)

S 17 miles (6:35mm)

Total 103.6  miles

Weight 141.5 lbs

Body fat 10.1%
Aerobic efficiency 949 beats per mile

I went into this week’s training super motivated after a strong over distance run last Saturday and on my runs on Monday and Tuesday my legs felt really good giving me confidence that I had recovered really well. I had noticed however that my cardiovascular system was struggling a little as my heart rate was a little higher than it has been recently for the pace output. It didn’t click at the time but I should probably have taken this as a prompt to perhaps take a couple more easy days in the week before trying a session. I didn’t do that and bowled straight into the session which was 24mins, 18 mins, 12 mins, 6 mins, 3 mins the plan being to start at roughly marathon pace and gradually get quicker. The session itself went well with the first section coming in at a nice 5:18 per mile, the second and third at 5:13s and then 5:08 and 4:58 for the six and three minute efforts respectively. It was super hard towards the end and I do think I overcooked the first a little meaning the rest were a real battle of survival. I then felt pretty smoked for the rest of the day and although tried a recovery run, it wasn’t pleasant.

On Thursday and Friday I was in a world of hurt, my legs were in absolute bits and I was completely wiped out so although the plan was always to run easy on these days, the easy was a lot slower than I have been used to recently! I just wanted to run as easy as my body would allow without doing any more damage. By Saturday I was starting to feel a little bit more normal and Sunday’s run was good from a CV perspective despite the legs still feeling quite tired.

Mike had initially suggested putting in a tempo session on the Saturday but we decided that there was just no point even starting it given how wrecked my legs were and also took a shorter long run to ensure proper recovery.

Marathon training is hard and sometimes it is ridiculously hard. I was in a pretty dark place Thursday through to Sunday but think that the easy days that I have taken will hopefully allow my body to absorb some of the hard work of recent weeks and I am confident that I will come through the other side, stronger than I have been before. In a way, I think the ideal marathon build up is to stress your body as much as possible with specificity to the event without breaking. If you can do that and get fresh for race day, you give yourself the best chance of running a stormer.

Weight is starting to drift down a touch and I am getting a little leaner which is really positive and I still have quite a few weeks before I need to be at my leanest so that’s all positive. Aerobic efficiency dropped back a little this week and I think that was probably due to me just being completely knackered from the hard run last Saturday. I will continue to monitor. c950 as an average is still a good place to be but I would like it to get back to c930 as an average before Berlin.

So on reflection of the whole week, it wasn’t quite what I hoped for mileage wise but I am glad to have another 100+ mile week with a top session ticked off. It is the whole campaign that counts and at least I am putting some good consistent work in which will hopefully pay dividends come 27^th September.  Of course, I hope I don’t have any more weeks that are that hard as I say Thursday - Sunday did leave me wondering whether all this hard work was really worth it at times. Each time that creeps into my mind I just have to remind myself of how good it feels on race day; the whole event, the excitement and then trying to deliver on all the hard training.  And then getting a little bit drunk afterwards. :-)