Marathon training has officially started. I’m following an 18 week plan, and started it on 3rd December, so it will (hopefully) finish on 7th April with the Manchester Marathon.
This time round I feel a little more prepared and I have a better idea of what to expect. I’ve managed to keep my training up since York so I had a good base level going into the plan. I’ve cut back on chocolate biscuits and started eating a bit more mindfully with a view to fuelling my running better. (Though I am definitely still having treats!). I’ve been trying to make sure I get plenty of sleep, and whilst I’m not where I want to be with it at all, I am making progress. Having some flexibility in my working hours helps, as I can sleep an extra hour if I need to and work a slightly later day. It’s definitely a better situation than it used to be. I’ve also finished choir for Christmas and decided to give it a miss over spring so that I have another free evening to relax a bit, as I’ve had too much on recently.
I’m not doing so well with adding in additional strength training, but I’ve started doing some press ups every day to help my upper body strength, I do mobility exercises most days, and I have been to a couple of yoga classes. I’m intending to make yoga a regular thing, then once that’s a habit, add in either another yoga class or some more strength training.
Anyway, non-running wise, things are going relatively well, so onto the running. I have gone for a custom plan this time, so that all my club sessions and races are written in, rather than me having to make substitutions, and so far it’s been awesome.
Week 1
Monday – rest
I do find it funny that the first day of my training involves no running. I didn’t really have much time anyway as I had choir practice, so it wasn’t a bad thing.
Tuesday – 7-8 mile club run
My group was doing an off road headtorch run on that day, so I knew it wouldn’t be fast but it would be good for building strength. It was really enjoyable, and I got to catch up with Amy, who I hadn’t seen for ages. It wasn’t especially fast, and I don’t love not seeing where my feet are going so well, but I am getting used to it and getting more confident. I was pretty muddy at the end, but loved the run. 9:57/mile.
Wednesday – 7m easy run
I usually run commute on a Wednesday so this has been written into my plan for me. It’s net downhill and I leave plenty of time for road crossing etc so I can run at a steady pace. It was pretty rainy on Wednesday so I decided to leave my headphones at home (I’m not sure how waterproof they are). It was probably a good move, I was quite soggy by the time I got to work, my feet were soaked through! Luckily my clothes and clean trainers were nice and dry, and a shower at work warmed me up. It actually wasn’t an unpleasant run, and doing a club run the night before means I have to run sensibly as my legs are usually tired.
Thursday – winter training, 12x400m off 200m recovery (plus 1.5m each warm up and cool down)
On Thursdays our club offers winter training sessions, which focus on intervals, hills, tempo runs, efforts. There are five different sessions that just rotate throughout winter, with a coach to guide us.
This session was a warm up, then 400m efforts around a road that is conveniently a 400m circle. We ran a whole lap, recovered for half a lap, and did that 12 times, before jogging back down.
I wasn’t aiming for a particular pace, more just attempting to go by feel and put in what I thought was the right level of effort. I managed to do the first seven efforts at a fairly consistent pace, mostly 6:5X minute/mile, and the final five were also consistent at about 7:0Xmin/mile, but slower than the first seven! I was pretty pleased with the effort though, especially as I find that by Thursday evening I’m starting to flag a bit and I don’t really feel like going out and doing a hard run.
Friday – S&C
I do strength and conditioning once a fortnight to try to help me get stronger, improve my running form, and hopefully help prevent injury. I did this week’s session before work, so it was an early start. We did some leg work (squats, single leg squats, single leg deadlifts) and upper body work (shoulder press, press-ups), as well as various mobility and balance exercises and a couple of running drills. I really like the variety that I get within my sessions and that it’s all focussed on helping me become a better runner.
Saturday – 3m easy run
Originally I was due to run five miles at easy pace on Saturday, and only five on Wednesday, however since my Wednesday runs got changed to seven miles to accommodate my run commute, my Saturday run was reduced to three miles… only I forgot! I went to Temple Newsam parkrun with a whole bunch of Harriers for a solidarity run to support St. Theresa’s AC after an incident involving members of their club. I hadn’t done the parkrun before, so it was nice to do a new one, and since I thought I was supposed to be running five miles, I did a bit as a warm up, ran the parkrun (though not hard) and then tacked on another bit at the end, which was a bit demoralising as my fellow club runners were all congregating at the finish! I also find it hard not to race when I’m out at parkrun with the Harriers, but I behaved and did my easy run. I finished the parkrun in 26:35, and my five miles worked out at 8:51. My ‘easy’ runs are definitely getting faster.
Sunday – 10m long run
I was visiting my best school friend in Gateshead at the weekend, so I headed out earlyish on the Sunday morning for my long run. She had suggested I run along the river, so I ran down to the quayside then ran along the Newcastle side of the river. It was a beautiful morning for a run, coolish but sunny, and running along the river was so peaceful. Sometimes it’s nice running somewhere flat as well, you can almost zone out as you’re not having to constantly watch your feet. It was downhill to the river and uphill back to Jenna’s house, but having a long flat section in the middle made a nice change from running in West Yorkshire! I really, really enjoyed this run, my average pace was 9:16/mile – probably thanks to having so much flat terrain.
Monday – rest
Thankfully Monday was a rest day – again, I say this just because I’m always stretched for time. I had my final choir practice that evening and wanted to start clearing out my kitchen cupboards as well (I’m on a mission to get rid of stuff, so I was trying to do a bit each day). As usual, I still managed plenty of walking.
Tuesday – 7-8m club run
It was my choir’s Christmas concert on Tuesday, so I couldn’t make Harriers in the evening. I decided to run at lunchtime instead, as I figured it would be much nicer than trying to run in the dark at the crack of dawn. My Tuesday runs are supposed to be tempo/fartlek/hills – basically something to challenge me and build speed or strength – so I decided to do a tempo run along the canal, as it’s close to work. I did a mile warm up, then six miles tempo, then a mile cool down, so essentially four miles out and four miles back.
I wasn’t really sure what I would be aiming for as a tempo speed. My 10k PB pace is about 7:40/mile and, whilst I could almost certainly beat that now, I wasn’t really looking to hit 10k race pace, so I figured I’d go on effort but aim to hit around 8:00/mile. I was very pleased to get under that for all of my tempo miles, running: 7:53, 7:53, 7:38, 7:52, 7:51, 7:25. It was another beautiful day for a run as well, sunny but cold, pretty much perfect.
Wednesday – 7m easy
I opted not to run commute on Wednesday, as it was our club’s annual Leeds Christmas lights run with Kirkstall Harriers. We meet at their base, go for a run together, then have food and drinks back at their place (they come to us in the summer for a summer evening run). I figured it would probably be about the right distance, and it’s usually quite an easy run as there are a lot of different abilities. We ended up doing 6.76m (so close enough!), my pace was 8:46/mile, but we did have a fair few stops to regroup. It was a lovely run, and I had just found out that morning that my colleague who I sit next to runs with Kirkstall, so we chatted a bit whilst running together as well which was really nice.
Thursday – winter training, 3×1.25m efforts off 0.4m recovery, plus warm up and cool down
Winter training this week was longer efforts. We warm up by jogging down to the other side of Horsforth, then run a loop that’s a little over 1.5m. 1.25m of it is an effort, then the rest is recovery, and we do that three times.
There weren’t many of us there, possibly due to the club run the evening before, possibly due to the freezing temperatures, or maybe just because people have Christmas events on. Anyhow, there were still a few of us, so off we went.
I find this session really hard. 1.25m is a long effort, and there’s a fair amount of uphill included in it. It really helped me this time that I had someone to run with – Paul is a bit faster than me, but that really helped me push myself. I managed fairly consistent efforts, which was really pleased with, as the only other time I’d done the session I slowed down each effort. This time I held my original faster pace.
Last session vs this session
The run, including warm up and cool down, totalled 7.6m. Ave page was 8:33/mile, efforts averaged about 7:48/mile which I was really pleased with.
Friday – cross training/rest
By the end of the week, I’m usually wearing out a bit, but I am determined to do more yoga so I was booked onto an early morning class before work. It was definitely worth getting up for, I really enjoyed it. I’m doing beginners classes as I haven’t done much yoga in months, and I love it. I just hope I can make it a regular thing. I had a proper rest in the evening though – I actually sat on the sofa, started this blog post, and read a book. It was heaven!
Saturday – 5m easy with strides in last 0.5m
The Harriers went on tour on Saturday to the new parkrun at Potternewton, which was a lot of fun – there were a lot of us there. It was freezing cold, to the extent that I even wore cropped leggings (I hate running in anything other than shorts usually). I also had a long sleeved, warm top on under my Harriers vest, as I knew I would be running at an easy pace and not heating up as much as I might otherwise.
When we arrived, I headed off for a warm-up (since I needed to run five miles anyway) and once I’d found the start area, ran to the centre nearby where there should have been toilet facilities. Unfortunately, the person who was supposed to open up hadn’t turned up, which not only meant no toilets, but also no parkrun hi-vis or signs, as they were all kept in the centre. The volunteer crew did an amazing job without their usual equipment (luckily they had the barcode scanners!) and despite a large number of runners having never done this parkrun before, there was no chance of getting lost thanks to the brilliant marshalls. Sadly the lack of toilets did leave me in a bit of a predicament as I really, really needed to go. I decided that weeing behind a tree in a public park would probably be frowned upon though and just had to run and bear it. It was a lovely parkrun, despite needing the toilet, and I did really enjoy it. I was glad to find post-parkrun that the toilet facilities were available, so I was able to finish my five miles (and make the journey home) in comfort. I am definitely going to go back to the parkrun as one of my friends volunteers there, and we are overdue a catch up – and it really is a lovely parkrun. Average pace was 8:54/mile.
Sunday – PECO #2
Sunday was my second ever cross country race. It deserves a report all of its own, so I will endeavour to get that done sometime this week (as I write this, I’m wondering exactly when I think I’ll have time… but you never know). It was a stunningly beautiful day, cool but not freezing cold, sunny, ground still damp underfoot. I was supposed to run a mile warm up, then do the race (approx. five miles), then a mile cool down.
I warmed up relatively well this time, then positioned myself close to the front of the pack of runners (partly we were a bit late to the party and it was the only place we could squeeze in). I decided just to go out hard and see what I could do. It was a tough race, nice and wet and muddy as well, but once I got going and got my breathing under control I felt (mostly) great, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The route measured 5.38m, and I ran it in 40:50, which I was over the moon with – that’s an average pace of 7:35/mile, which is faster than my current 10k PB on a fast road course!
So that’s the first two weeks done already. So far so good. I am feeling quite strong at the moment, so I just need to keep running well, training hard but sensibly, and getting enough sleep.
jenniferlucie runs 
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