As the famous quote goes, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’.
Following a plan with a very long run at a set pace is obviously good but IME, lots of things happen on long runs that you can just push through on short ones.
IMO, seeing any long run as a ‘fail’ can be detrimental. Sometimes you’ll hit the target, sometimes you just have to bring it home. Mileage under your belt will give you more confidence on race day, than a series of Hal planned distances at x pace.
Yeah, I need some music or podcasts to drown out the negative thoughts. The dogs and kids made it a bit of an obstacle course last time, so I’ll aim to start much earlier. I might ditch the jacket, gels and bottle on the grass too. Hopefully no one will nick them or dog piss on the them.
It’s a good point and reminds me, I’m following the Marathon Plan, there is also the Novice Marathon Plan which has the same paces, tempo and interval, but significantly shorter long runs. I’m significantly ahead of the Novice Plan, so maybe it’s not so bad and I should be positive about it.
Missed last weekends key run, long run, due to family issues and a water tank leak. Today I can’t fit in my tempo key run due to a funeral and other family commitments. I’m torn between getting out and doing any kind of run, or swapping in a quality bike session and rearranging the rest of the week to get my key runs in.
Been a bit stop/start the last 10days or so. Right now, I feel like sub 4 is on the cards but 3.45, which I’m aiming for, would be a struggle.
No long run today and have an easy week planned (45-50km) followed by 3wks of 80-85km before a two week taper. The weekly mileage is proving ok but losing that motivation for the long single run.
Had a back issue so just getting back to running now after quite a few weeks not doing much and missing my marathon last week.
Will try and get ready for Blackpool mara in April.
Urgh, the key runs are definitely hurting now with 7 weeks to go. Interval day today, relatively empty gym had a fit girl run beside for half of it then a coughing dude in blue UA gear. He then came into the changing room to cough beside me as well.
1k @4:20
2k @4:33
1k @4:20
1k @4:18
HR peaked at 181 for the last one, not seen it over the 170s in quite some time so I’m not imagining this was hard work.
Feeling confident I can blow my 5k PB out of the water but only mildly confident on the marathon pace for nearly four hours.
There’s possibly something in that, as in you are putting too much pressure on yourself. That was another thing that clicked for me in December. I was more relaxed about the whole thing, and performed a lot better (both in training and the race).
Yeah you’re right. I only want to do this marathon if I can break 4hrs, and that’s to give me confidence in breaking 5hrs in IM.
I guess I just don’t trust the training, basically. Something to work on.
Pretty sure I won’t be doing Brighton if they cancel it or not.
I’m trying to decide what to do;
Cut back to half distance training now?
Run mara distance locally?
Run mara distance on a treadmill?
Switch to 5k, park run?
I feel like I need some validation of the training I’ve put in, I suppose a real world half marathon PB would cover that…but I’d still have the nagging sensation that I can’t execute over 42.2km.
I used to think the same. Two busted marathons followed HM pbs. Another thing I wrote after December was that I realised a HM is a very poor indicator of marathon shape.
The training itself gave me the confidence to execute the race. Ever longer durations at or around MP and HR continually dropping for those efforts. I don’t train to HR, but being aware of the numbers allows you to infer the physiological adaptations that are occurring.
