I’m a little bit nervous. I have decided to run/walk twenty miles (ish) tomorrow. The first of my two twenty-mile long runs. I’m deliberately going out on the Wirral Way, where it can get tedious because it is flat and straight but is ideal for getting a rhythm going because it is flat and straight.
I’ve done a mini taper by not doing any strength sessions this week, which is great as they are getting so dull. I’m already dropping it down to one a week for the last couple of weeks anyway because I’ve been a slacker. I need to create a new routine, or a few different routines, or something. I know it’s important and I think I owe a lot of my current stamina to the routine. I have comfortably been able to (slowly) do thirty-five miles a week for four out of the last five weeks (and thirty miles in the off week).
This is the final month of hard work though, and I’m hoping that my previous commitment to the weights will get me over the line. As I’m not trying to work towards a time anymore. The long runs just seem to be hard, and as I go longer, I am getting slower.
On the other hand, it is quite nice to see that my short runs have not suffered too badly for my marathon training. On Wednesday I did the Ellesmere Port 5K in a time (27:27) which is pretty much the same as my best times this year. It was slower than last year by sixteen seconds, and my heart rate was higher and t felt harder, but at least it was as fast as when I was doing my 5K training earlier this year. Let’s dismiss last year’s time as a rare, flow-state phenomenon – for now. Let’s just be pleased that I strung together three full miles that each went below nine-minutes just about. That is a rare occurrence.
I’m hoping that most of tomorrow’s miles will sit around the twelve-minute mark, but my last long run averaged just under thirteen and a half minutes so that might be reaching too far. I’ve currently been trying to figure out where to start on the Wirral Way to get the full ten out hit. On Google maps it looks like the full length falls short by a couple of miles, so let’s hope I don’t drop out by sixteen miles. Or if I do let’s hope those miles are a tad faster than last week.
Listen to me making excuses for myself already.
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