2015 London Marathon - Week 5: 30/3 - 5/4

M  6 miles (6:51 mm)
T  10.5 miles (6:46mm), 6 miles (7:02mm)
W Aborted Marathon session - 16 miles (6:08),  6 miles (7:11mm)
T 11 miles (6:35mm), 6.5 miles (7:11mm)
F  7 miles (7:04mm), 5 miles (6:59mm)
S 27.5 miles including Middleton Marathon 2nd edition (5:59mm)
S 13 miles (6:33mm), 6 miles (7:14mm)

Total - 122.2  miles (6:35 mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 940 beats per mile average
Average Weight 140.2 Lbs

So. After the previous weekend's tribulations I wasn't sure where this week was going to take me. It took me until Wednesday to finally blog the previous week's training due to a sheer lack of enthusiasm and mojo-lessitis. This was down to a bad run at the Northern 12-stage and a bug that I had and one that threatened at least psychologically, if not physically, for me to think about pulling out of London in a few weeks' time. Thankfully this running thing can put you in magnificent places as well as dark and I was served  big dose of the latter as this week progressed.

This week meant a return to the Steve-Way-Marathon-Tastic training sessions given last week had been about running easy after Wilmslow Half. And so given me being ill I approached it with some trepidation and although still bunged up felt fine within myself so decided to go out and do the prescribed 4X18mins at MP (3:00 recovery). Now, it was a pretty blustery day but I knew fairly earlier on that it wasn't going to be worth the effort given the the first two came in at 5:29 pace feeling like I was really starting to work a bit too hard. I decided halfway through the third effort to abort the session and just run a few more miles easy. My legs just weren't happy with it at all. I felt like all strength had been drained out of them so rather than pushing on and putting myself in a deeper hole it was I hope sensible to call it a day there.

So after that I remained positive in that I had just got over being ill and thought there would still be time but the big focus would then revert to looking at this weekend's long run. A 27.5 miler was planned and given it had been three weeks since my last proper long run I was also a little bit nervous about how the legs would cope with it. A very easy day preceded the run which I think helped the legs be quite fresh. It was another early start though as we had a busy Saturday planned, so fuelled with just a banana before the off and a couple of gels 'just in case' off I set to my tempo loop for the second Middleton Marathon. As the run progressed I realised that all was 'back on'. I felt good and strong and whilst 26.2 miles is always a long way I never felt in any issues and could have pushed on at any stage. I decided to lift the effort a bit in the final nine miles basically because I was starting to feel quite hungry and it was the only way to take my mind off scrambled eggs on toast. I ended up covering the full distance in a shade under 2:37 so just under a minute quicker than the last time I did this training run and if I remember correctly feeling quite a bit fresher.

Aerobic efficiency has pretty much stayed static again which is unsurprising given the slightly lower mileage last week and coming off the back of the cold. It is around exactly the same level as it was pre-Yorkshire Marathon now so that is a real positive. If I can get a little improvement over the final couple of weeks of training  a PB attempt should very much be on the card.

Weight has dropped another couple of lbs so I am getting very close to race weight now which is good with still three weeks to go. It means I can eat without trying to operate at a calorie deficit which is pleasing as I like food. A lot. :-)

All in all given my mental state last week I am absolutely over the moon with how the week ended up panning out. The test of my final two marathon specific sessions coming up this week will give me the greatest insight in to whether I really am in with a chance of bettering 2:22:49 on 26th April.