Loch Ness MT – Week 4

I made the mistake, the other day, of looking back at my records. Specifically, around the training of the Yorkshire Marathon in October 2023. That was only three years ago. Three years is not that long, but for a woman who had then just turned fifty, and now is nearly fifty-three, it feels like an age. 

I had been quite pleased with myself in this current training period, maintaining a thirty-mile week and getting my twice-a-week weights in. I thought that this high (for me) mileage maintenance was a new thing. I began to wonder whether I would see a different outcome in my marathon to my usual 5:25/5:30 times. 

Then, as I said, I looked back. In the training for the autumn marathon of 2023, I saw that I had put in a very solid thirty-one miles a week on average there too. And the kicker is that I was taking much less time to do those miles than I am now. My time at Yorkshire? 5:18. A personal best but not by much. 

So, what can I take from this knowledge?

1. Well, I would say that I’m now in perimenopause whereas then I didn’t have any obvious symptoms. My body is in flux, so I guess it doesn’t have much in the way of reserves to help me on my marathon journey.
2. I’m three years older. Three years older in your fifties onwards holds a bigger weight than when you’re younger.
3. I’m really not a natural born runner, and my body is trying to send me subtle and not so subtle signals to dissuade me from pushing against the grain. That’s always been the case but perhaps my body is just sick and tired of me not listening.

I’m not going to lie; I did have a little internal cry when I looked back at these stats. It does bring home the humungous task I’ve set myself, and I just don’t know if I can do it.

But here’s the thing. I may not get near the five-hour mark on my marathon, yet I’m going to train like it’s still a possibility. Given that my body is going through all these changes, I don’t know what it is now capable of. So, I can, on the one hand disregard how I was training three years ago, and on the other, tell myself that I’ve done this kind of training before and I can do it again.

That is probably not very evidence-based thinking, but I do need to try and change something this time around to keep the slim hope alive.

In Block 1 (my first four weeks), I was ticking along okay on thirty miles a week. Other people run less and can go faster (see my point 3 above). My weight sessions have not translated into speed but I think that’s been crucial to reduce my fatigue for my mileage and not break my legs.

In Block 2:

• I am going to increase these miles and get up to thirty-five ish a week. 
• I am putting a marathon pace shorter run in on one day and then my long run in the next day, similar to the Hanson Method.
• I am going to make sure I’ve got at least one hard effort interval session.
• I am going to do 1 minute of jumping and hopping before each run – maybe plyometrics is the missing ingredient.

I had hoped to do that third point for Block 1, but the efforts were a bit lack lustre. I need to up the ante a bit in this next four weeks. 

With regards to the second point, I did have a go at a short and long this week, with a five-and-a-half-mile club run followed by a nearly fourteen-mile long run. The long run didn’t go so well, for several reasons. I was on my period (yes, I know, why am I still getting these?); it was quite warm (understatement much?); it was the first time I tried the back-to-back with this long a run. 

Do I have a hope of getting anywhere near this five-hour goal?

Well, there are just over eleven weeks to go before I find out. It’s a hope. But hope without action is like a lock without a key, so I will just stop my pity party and give it a damn good shot.