I have a half marathon coming up on Sunday. The Stratford upon Avon Half which always falls on the nearest Sunday to Shakespeare’s official birthday – April 23rd (which happens to be today: Happy Birthday Bill). There’s also a full marathon going on at the same time, but when I booked this race, I had no plans to do longer than a half this year. Obviously, that aim got side-tracked a tad with the Loch Ness Marathon in September but that will be another story.
I had hoped to follow a training plan or at least be a little bit more systematic in the run up to this Sunday. Having got 2:15 something in the undulating Helsby at the beginning of the year, the aim was to improve on that time on a course that does look, aside from a couple of small lumps, flat. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly if you read my blogs regularly, I’ve not been systematic at all. Somehow or other, January has turned into April, and there has been no conscious ticking off of any workouts.
- I wanted to get a couple or three runs that were longer than thirteen miles. I managed one.
- I wanted to be consistently running about twenty-five miles a week or more. I managed five of those in all the weeks after the Helsby Half.
- I wanted to do a few effort intervals inside my long slow runs. My long runs remained slow both inside and out.
- I wanted to do a weekly speed workout. I managed seven in the fourteen weeks, and that was only after I got generous with the definition of a ‘speed’ workout.
So, the weather looks quite nice at least.
London Marathon is also happening on the same day, and I’m contemplating throwing my name into the ballot for 2027 yet again. Is it going to be a two-day affair as has been reported? It looks like it but even if they have forty thousand ballot places over the two days, the odds are still miniscule if over a million people put their names in as they did for this marathon. If I donate my money, I apparently get a hydration vest for my generosity. I do have one of those, but it doesn’t have as many front pockets as the one shown. Do I sound like I’m talking myself into going for it yet again?
Talking of training plans and my inability to follow them. I have decided to work through a six-week plan for an improved 5K. I can squeeze it in before I start my marathon training, and I really do want to inject a little bounce into my running.
Week one is actually this lead up week to the half; taper time be damned. I have done two runs with a lot of heavy breathing involved (I think they were both counted above, so it goes to show how little speed work I have done in the last three months). It will be two a week for this and the next five weeks so I will be interested in whether I improve. I certainly hope so.
The wonderful thing about 5K training is that the workouts may have your lungs turned inside out but they’re not a slog fest, unlike the marathon training that I’ll be trying to do afterwards. They’re usually done and dusted inside an hour which makes a nice change for slow plodders like me. And while I’m certain these two extra sessions won’t do anything for this Sunday’s run, they may help in my build up to Loch Ness.
I know that I’m not great at following plans, which was partly why I jumped the gun on the start date. I have already got one week out of the way, and five more weeks seems like something I can manage. Pensby Runners hosts a regular 5K race in the spring and summer months. The Seaside Runs are held on the last Wednesday of the month for six months and the May race will be five and half weeks away, which kind of works with this plan. There is also Parkrun, but Birkenhead Parkrun is a very busy place these days, so I’d like to have a go where it is chip-timed.
I can feel my mind getting ahead of myself. I still have to pop out on Sunday and run a half marathon. I am not sure if I can get anywhere near January’s time let alone go below it, but I will try and enjoy it and then get cracking on the next project.
theleadlesspencil 