Running for Charlie - London Marathon 2017 Week 13 of 16

M 13 miles HA (6:04mm), 6 miles inc. strides (7:07mm)
T 9 miles HA (6:48mm)
W Canova Special Block Day; Session 1 - 16.5 miles (5:49mm) Session 2 - 11 miles (5:53mm)
T 7 miles (7:54mm)
F 11.5 miles HA (6:05mm), 5 miles (7:34mm)
S 9 miles (6:40mm)
S 27.5 miles inc a cheeky steady marathon (5:55mm)

Total 116 miles (6:20mm)
Core & Drills 30 mins
Total Training Time 12 hrs 42 mins Vs 15hrs 25mins
Aerobic efficiency 913 Vs 940 beats per mile
Weight 139.34lbs Vs 139.97lbs
Body Fat 9.97% (13.90lbs) Vs 10.41% (14.58lbs)
Lean Body Mass 85.5% (119.14lbs) Vs 85.1% (119.11lbs)
Water 65.33% (91.03lbs) Vs 64.57% (90.37lbs)

Another big week this week, not so much in miles but in sessions. It was Canova Special Block Week! For any readers that followed my build up to Toronto, this essentially consists of one day where you run two hard sessions. It's one that makes you a little nervous as you know it's going to be so tough and makes you wish you just did this running lark to keep fit. Then it would have been easy to stick in a couple of five mile jogs instead! But know I can be quite stubborn as well as obsessive so I looked to repeat what I did last year.


This first run of the day was 5.5 miles at around 90% of MP which came in at 5:54mm, 4 mins jog then 8 miles at 98.5%MP which came in bang on at 5:27mm. This was comparable with what I did pre-Toronto and the HR was a little lower for the efforts. The second session of the day was 6X4:30 with 2 mins jog. The idea was to run these at around 5:07 pace but I managed to hit 5:00mm average for the efforts despite it being quite breezy. It was super tough but it was once again so pleasing to get done. Going into the second session you have no idea how you're going to get through it given you're already quite tired, and the legs a little dull, from the first session early in the morning.


The following days were tough and the legs were definitely feeling it, I also felt pretty wiped out so just ran what I felt necessary. I missed out on a couple of doubles but it's no biggie given this was my critical week of training and the last thing I would want is to pick up an injury from overreaching. I ensured I got as much rest as I could ahead of Sunday's long run. I planned to do a steady marathon which I did after a mile's warm up and covered the distance in 2:35:18 which was 3 seconds slower than what I did the same run pre-Berlin 2015 but my HR averaged 5 beats per minute lower. This hopefully implies I have developed my engine some more. I know I was in 2:20 shape at Berlin if it hadn't been for the stitch, so I am coming to the boil quite nicely now. Don't get me wrong, it was getting hard towards the end and I was looking forward to finishing, but I never felt like I was getting close to the red line. I did this run through the day for a change and given it was a lovely spring day there were lots of people out and about. I got the usual heckle but the highlight was about 14 miles in when a car of young guys pulled up alongside and followed me for about half a mile with the theme music from Rocky blaring out of the windows. It gave me a lift when I was starting to get a bit bored and I couldn't stop smiling after that! Running is ace!

The weight has come down a little as well as body fat again which is nice to see as I am being rewarded with sensible diet choices of plant based stuff. None of this low carb high fat nonsense I see folks posting about!

On finishing my long run on Sunday it was nice to check my Garmin's race predictor. See below! It thinks I'm ready, even if it has a tendency to be a tad optimistic!

So nearly there now, and nothing will be as hard as I've run this week so I hope I can say the hay is in the barn.

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