Running for Charlie - London Marathon 2017 Week 9 of 16.

M 9 miles HA (7:32mm), 5 miles inc. strides & drills (7:45mm)
T 18 miles inc. 4X18mins (5:49mm), 5 miles (7:39mm)
W 8 miles HA (6:41mm)
T 12 miles (6:46mm), 6 miles inc 3X30s strides & drills (7:49mm)
F 9 miles HA (6:34mm), 5 miles inc. 6X15s strides (7:36mm)
S 30 miles (6:26mm)
S 12.5 miles (6:49mm)

Total 120 miles (6:45mm)
Core 42 mins
Total Training Time 14 hrs 14 mins
Aerobic efficiency 997 beats per mile
Weight 142.6lbs (avge over the week)
Body Fat 11.5% (16.40lbs)
Lean Body Mass 84.11 (119.94lbs)
Water 63.1% (89.98 lbs)

For any regular reader, apologies for the elusiveness of my blog the last few weeks. I ran the Liversegde Half Marathon about three weeks ago and the following week's training was shelved as it took my legs ages to recover! I also thought it would be worth having an easy week before getting on with the marathon specific phase. Unfortunately it meant I would miss the National (and indeed the whole XC season for one reason or another!) but it was the right decision as I do think another hard effort may well have burnt me out and scuppered London.


I had planned to use Liversedge as part of my long run as a solid effort but in the end got drawn into a decent race. I was sat in fourth place at halfway with the leader out of sight and second and third about 60 metres up the road. At this point I would have been happy with 4th place as I was feeling quite fatigued from the week's training and the conditions were horrendous. I just wanted to go home and have a warm bath! All of a sudden I found myself catching Tristan Learoyd of New Marske to go into third place and before long I had caught and overtaken Adam Peers of Wakefield to go second. Ian Harding was currently in first place and out of sight. I don't think I'd seen him since the fourth mile. As we turned to make a mile long drag up hill I could finally got a clear sight of him and as I was buoyed by getting myself into second place, I set about trying to reel him in. I cautiously closed the gap and caught him at 11.5 miles and went straight past. It was then just one foot in front of the other to take the win. I ran a time of 71:30 which was incredibly pleasing as it is a very very testing course with c1000ft of elevation.

So I then basically had a week off, and got back into things two weeks ago feeling fat and unfit! I knew that the fitness wouldn't be tfar away though so just concentrated on getting some miles in. The first week I did 108miles and then last week I upped that slightly to 120 with a session of 4X18 minutes off 3:00 and  along run of 30 miles.


The session went well averaging 5:28 pace for the efforts which was a little surprising given I'd not run that fast since the half marathon a couple of weeks before. It was hard but comfortable and to be doing that sort of run eight weeks out was very pleasing.


The 30 miler was a bit of an early start as I take my youngest to ballet on Saturday mornings and wanted to get it out of the way before the rest of the weekend. So the alarm went of at 3:45 and I was out the door by 4:20. The run went really well and I felt strong the whole way. I ran without fuel or water as I genuinely believe running like this helps get your body fat burning and is a key specific part of marathon training. I didn't carry any water, basically because I find it a bit of a pain and I had made sure I was well hydrated in the couple of days before the run. I took in a hilly course and covered the 30 miles in 3:13 the same time it took me to do my first marathon, but feeling a million times more comfortable! It was pleasing to get that one done by just after 7:30 on a Saturday.


I'm back on tracking my diet and weight and thanks to the recommendation by Martin Cox of a book called Proteinaholic by Dr Garth Davis have gone virtually 100% plant based. I haven't eaten meat in over two weeks and only very little dairy. I must admit it is early days but I feel fantastic and my recovery from training has almost certainly improved. The weight has also dropped off despite eating like a vegetarian king! I started at 149.6 lbs and 12.9%BF(19.3lbs) after my run on Monday 20th February and on Sunday 5th March I was 143.8lb and 11.6%BF(16.68lbs).  Below is a chart I have put together that details my weight pre and post-run along with bodyfat percentage. An interesting thing that I have noticed is that after a Heat Acclimation run my body fat is much lower than after a regular outdoor run. You can see this with the peaks and troughs. The main thing is the trend lines for Body Mass and Body Fat are trending down!

As readers will know who read my blog, this year I am trying to help my colleague Jo raise funds for her son Charlie. Charlie suffers with Cerebral Palsy amongst other severe medical conditions. The long and short of it is that Charlie needs Spinal Chord surgery and this is not funded by the NHS. So Jo is raising money to pay for the surgery and post-op physio herself. This is a mammoth task as she is looking to raise £85,000 so I would be highly grateful if anyone that reads this blog could consider donating to the cause. I and many readers are incredibly lucky to have the quality of life that Charlie can only dream of and hopefully some of you will help Jo with her efforts. I for one will be running my heart out for Charlie on April 23rd.


Charlie's Footsteps