20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

At a similar time post-Yorkshire Marathon I wrote a blog entitled Reflections and Plans which had my thoughts on where I was going and what I intended to do over the coming months before building up to London. Unfortunately none of those plans really came off because of one thing or another. The main one being post-race blues and just a big lack of direction. I had all these good intentions on what I needed to do to get myself into a better position to start the 2015 marathon build up but quickly I'd lost a lot of motivation and focus and just plodded along aimlessly without any real purpose. That resulted in me ending up in January fat and unfit, the polar opposite to where I wanted to be! Of course it all ended up OK and I still managed to put together a decent campaign and knocked a bit more time off the PB and all things considered I was really happy. But what could that PB have been had I got to the start of my training ready to train?

I now have to start seeing sub 2:20 as a feasible goal within the next couple of campaigns. Of course I wont be silly enough to set it as a target as I haven't yet done the training and I'm a big believer in racing the conditions as you find them on the day rather than chasing an arbitrary target. That said sub 2:20 should be achievable sometime soon as it amounts to about 5 seconds per mile off my average pace. I also have much bigger ambitions but those are for another day....

The next target race is Berlin at the end of September and this Sunday just passed was 20 weeks to the day until the race. It was while out on a 15 mile run that I decided that '20 weeks to sub 2:20?' would make a good title for a blog and so for the next 20 weeks I shall be blogging my progress towards that event.

The big question however is how do I improve? The honest answer is I don't know until I try something different. Sure I could do what I have always done and I might continue to knock a bit off but what 'different' do I need to do to get in a position where knocking 2-3 minutes of my PB is a realistic goal? That 'different' for me is to arrive at the Marathon Specific phase in great shape from a speed perspective so that is what I will be focusing on for the next 10 weeks before starting the Marathon specific phase. Recently, I have been lucky enough to have a lot of guidance from Mike Baxter who has shared some really interesting things with me about how they did things back in his day. Although I am a little daunted by some of the things he has suggested I cannot wait to get started.

In a nutshell it means much reduced mileage and much more interval, structured fartlek and hill type sessions while maintain the strong aerobic base I have from my marathon training. All this is with the intention to smash my 10k PB (32:05 from 2013) and 5k PB (15:51 from 2012 official - I've done a parkrun in 15:18 but I think it was c60 metres short). Those times do look really sloppy now in comparison to my marathon time so I am looking forward to getting some new marks on the board.

Recovery from London has been fantastic. I had a whole eight days off following the race and really indulged which I think was needed just to recharge the batteries. It was somewhat of a shock when I stood on the scales to see myself at 13lbs over marathon race weight last Tuesday morning. Luckily most of that was water/beer/wine/cake/chocolate/pizza/pie retention as it quickly dropped off over the following days although I am now 4lbs over the weight I ran in London. I am a bit more comfortable at this weight and it will be pleasant not having to lose any weight but just maintaining until the next marathon cycle begins. I did a few runs last week to edge myself back in and am now raring to go, mentally fresh and really up for it which as I have said to some is something I haven't experienced at this stage post-marathon before. I have a new zest and focus on what I need to try to get quicker. Whatever happens it's going to be fun!