London Marathon 2007

Its just over 4 weeks to go and my training is coming along nicely. I did a short run of 5.5 miles to day after having had three days with no running and I felt very lively and had masses in the tank. I felt like I could have maintained 7'30 pace for quite a while which is a lot faster than normal.

On Saturday morning I did just under 20 miles. I started off from Woodnewton because PACTRAC where holding their training weekend there. Ben and Robert came with me for the first few miles. From Woodnewton we headed over to Southwick and then over the big hill and down to Cotterstock where we turned towards Fotheringhay. It was quite nice having the boys with me, but it does make things a bit stressful. After the first loop I repeated the loop two more times. By the time I got back to Woodnewton I was fairly tired.

Alex gave me a massage which really helped my recovery.

The early part of the week was very hard. After the Mondi 15 I was quite tired. At the track on tuesday night Sean got us all to do 6x800M which I found very taxing. Wednesday I swam and Thursday I did my 6x2 miles run. By the time Thursday evening came I was absolutely finished. Fortunately Friday was my day off so I had some time to recover by my long run on Saturday.

I've got a hard few days ahead of me as this week is one of my 40 mile weeks, but this time it does not seem that daunting at all. I am starting to think that given a good day I will be able to do a sub 3'50. I need to work on getting the feeding right when I am pushing hard as I think that is what will prevent me achieving my goal.

London Marathon 2007

I did the Mondi 15 over in the fens around March. I wasn't sure how I would perform, but I finished in 02:06:10 which means that I managed to do 8'24. I know that at the moment I won't be able to hold that speed for another 11 miles. However I feel reasonably confident of getting close to my target of 3:50. There are still 5 weeks of training to go and I am much fitter than I have been for a while.

The back is fine now. I am back in my own bed and not getting any pain when I lie down. I still get a bit of pain if I lift things and I am stiff when I get out of bed.

There are only 5 weeks of proper training left. Wow, I can't believe its going so quickly. On the one hand I want the day to come so that I can ease off on the training and get on with some other things. While on the other hand I don't want it to pass in a rush.

Over the next 5 weeks I have got to try and loose a bit more weight and concentrate on working on maintaining the pace over long distances.

London Marathon 2007

Things are looking up. The marathon is now 7 weeks away which means that I have 6 weeks of training left. I have just completed one of my hard weeks and although I am feeling tired this morning I know that I am not exhausted and ready for more. Last week I clocked up 43 miles on the road and a good hour swimming session. The cycling took a back seat.

Yesterday was my long run day. To make things more interesting I decided to incorporate the Frostbite at Huntingdon into my run. Therefore I started running from Stilton to the race at Huntingdon. The road from Stilton is long and follows the route of Ermine Street, which means its straight and boring. I felt good during the race and managed to get round the 5 miles in 42:50 - 8'30 pace which is faster than my marathon target pace. Hopefully this means that I am on track.

This week is bit easier I've only got to do 31 miles which means that I will only do 4 run sessions