Yorkshire MT – Week 9

Near the end of this month, I become 50. And just over two weeks after that, I run my next marathon.

What I had set out to do, this year, was to replicate the last time I had given marathon running a go. In 2015, I ran the London Marathon and then Athens, later on that same year, in November. The first didn’t go so well when I unravelled after about mile 16, but for the second one, although I went no faster because I stayed with my friend, I felt pretty good all the way. I knew I was much fitter this time around, because I ran a half marathon, that September, in just under two hours.

I had picked two marathons this year, in order to replicate that journey as best I could. However, it’s eight years on, I’m older, heavier, and definitely perimenopausal so the chances of a bagging an equally strong experience aren’t going to be the same. I think the best I could do a half in, at the moment, is about 2:15, so that’s a big difference.

What happened after I ran the marathon in Athens though, was that I barely ran another step for ages, and my enjoyment of and participation in running went a bit up and down. Who knows what would have happened if I had kept the momentum going after that autumn. Would I have got faster and stronger? Would my marathon times have been in the low 4 hours instead of the mid 5 hours? Or would I have been hampered by injuries?

There is no point in trying to imagine any ‘sliding-door’ scenarios because I can’t access any of those parallel worlds yet. I’m in the here and now. I’m in better shape than I was a year ago, but not quite as good as I’d hoped. Which is fine. My consistency and enthusiasm for running doesn’t seem to be waning, and that is good.

The marvellous thing about getting older is that the age-graded percentage takes that into account. So my Parkrun times are starting to go down again. They’re not quite as low as when I was at my fittest, but that percentage tells me that I’m relatively faster now, at least on my 5K times. It’s always worth checking that column out.

This week during Parkrun, I went for it, with a good warm up: jogging two miles, followed by three-way lunges and some high knees etc. I missed my recent course PB by two seconds, which was very close. If that huge council van hadn’t been parked on one tight corner of the course I could very well have made those seconds up but I did feel like I was putting a lot more effort in this time, probably because it was rather scorchio.

It was the last session of a week of sessions, after the week began with my second ever fell race. I would definitely class that as a hill session! Then on Wednesday, I ran 10 miles at a pace that I hoped would empty me, but that I could maintain for the duration, so a long tempo or a threshold session (I don’t know if there is a difference). Again, I did a dynamic warm up with some drills. I didn’t jog first, that first mile got me to speed, but it’s a revelation that I’m at the stage where a warm-up for a ten miler would make me faster and not deplete my overall energy!

My plan next week is to get to 19 or 20 miles in one go. I don’t have the stamina to do that long a run two weeks on the trot, so I’m alternating. One week of shorter sessions, one week with the super long run in. It might work, it might not, but given how well I did in the 17 miles last week, I’m going to try it.

Day	What I Did
Mon	Cilcain Mountain Race   Run: 4.58 miles [7.37 km] Pace: 15.33 mins/mile [9.52 mins/km]
Tue	Yoga Strength
Wed	Run: 10 miles [16.1 km] Pace: 10.43 mm [6.48 mins/km]   Yoga Strength
Thu	Yoga Strength
Fri	Nothing
Sat	Parkrun warmup Run: 2 miles [3.2 km]   Parkrun Run: 3.1 m [5km] Pace: 8.46 mm [5.26 m/km]
Sun	Gentle longish run Run: 11 m [17.7 km] Pace: 12.37 mm [7.68 m/km]   This might have been a bit longer and quicker if I hadn’t been caught short after mile 9 with no access to modern plumbing, and a suitable bush took a while to find.