Marathon Journey – week 10
Week 10 – 25th March – 31st March
Week 10 already, the weeks are flying by now although still 6 weeks to the big day. This was planned to be a big mileage week, probably the biggest so far. It was certainly going to include the longest run so far, let’s see how I got on.
To catch up on previous weeks see below.
Link to my JustGiving page for Motor Neurone Disease Association #runforafriend #runwithafriend #runwithfriends.
My foot injury has been fine this week, I changed the lacing on all my trainers but I did have an old pair I used for walking the dog and no matter what I did they still hurt, so they have been fully retired now!
Reminder – this is not intended as any kind of recommendation, it is purely my own thoughts and comments on my weeks training. You should seek professional advice for correct marathon training tailored to you. However I hope it gives you some kind of inspiration to try something different yourself.
Training runs
Monday 25th March
So after a Sunday off at the end of week 9, I started week 10 raring to go. Monday is easy run day, meant as a recovery run after a busy weekend. Tonights run was a familiar route, along the seafront from VT car park, up the old train line past St Mary Magdalenes church to the station. Then up to Parklands care home, sharp left back down towards the green bridge, along Grants Crescent and Tatty Road to Noses Point then all the way back along the seafront.
Wednesday 27th March
As you know I love the Wednesday run, probably most of all out of the weeks runs. These are the runs that I didn’t do much of before and I feel like these runs have made me stronger. Tonight, I wanted to do a tempo run where after a mile warm up, I try to maintain a faster pace for around 3 miles then another cool down. The route started up towards Seaham Hall with the steady climb up the Hall bank and then up Lord Byrons Walk. I usually hate Lord Byrons Walk ins any direction but especially up hill. The path has a very uneven camber and is not nice to run on at all.
Laura ran with me all the way up here and kept me going at a steady pace. We then turned into Woodlands, running past my old school grounds, Northlea and out towards Station Road and down Station Road.
I started running with Leanne around here and we tried to keep a good pace going all the way back to the car park. In fact we did better than that, it turns out we did a 5 mile progressive run with the pace gradually increasing each mile.
I wanted to get to 5.1 miles tonight as that would take me over 100 miles for the month, a nice little milestone. You can see in the video below, Leanne pushing me to get there. She was going to stop on 5 miles exactly but kept going to get me over the line – thanks Leanne.
Friday 29th March – Good Friday
Today is a milestone run, way back when I started this training, this day was in the diary. Last year, on Good Friday, some of my friends who were training for a marathon ran from Dalton Park to South Shields, 19 miles in total. Some of us joined in along the way to run various distances. I joined at Roker Park last year to do 10k. The goal at the end was Fish and Chips from Colmans. Quite the incentive!
So this was the second year of doing this run and this year I was going all the way!
We started at Dalton Park at 8.00 am and as you can see below there was quite a turnout. Some were going to do 10k, some 10 miles and some of us were going all the way.
We headed down Hell Hill towards the seafront and ran all the way along to North Beach where we picked up some more runners who would complete a half marathon. Shortly after North Beach, some turned back after completing their 10k. We ran towards Sunderland, through Ryhope, Grangetown and Hendon, through Mowbray Park, eventually crossing the Wear bridge.
We ran through the marina at Sunderland and along Roker seafront to Roker Park and Seaburn. Just before Whitburn we met some more runners Emma and Sarah with their babies who were going to do the last 10K with the pushchairs.
The last 5 or 6 miles were pretty tough, it was getting warmer and quite sunny. We had purposely picked a fairly flat route but it was obviously a long way. Just as we passed Marsden Grotto I checked my watch and it read 16.25 miles. My longest run to date was 17 miles so I knew I was approaching my longest distance. I checked my watch again a couple of minutes later and realised that I had stopped my watch!
I started the watch again but it wasn’t going to record my longest run and also I was unsure when I was going to hit the planned 19 miles. When we got to Colmans, I knew that I had roughly a half to three quarters of a mile to go so I kept running along the front. After a little while we turned around back towards Colmans. When I got there I hoped I had hit 19 miles but knowing I had definitely ran my longest distance. I checked my watch and added up both runs and was relieved to see I had done 19.1 miles + that little bit where I didn’t realise I had stopped my watch.
Now, time to wait in the massive queue for fish and chips as a reward.
Sunday 31st March
I had in my head that I wanted to get to 130 miles for the month of March. So that meant after day of rest on Saturday I would need to do 11 miles on Sunday. It was another sunny, warm Spring day as we set off from Dalton Park again, this time heading in the opposite direction towards South Hetton. Here we picked up the disused railway line that went all the way down to Ryhope through Murton and Seaton. Once in Ryhope we would head back along the coast to Seaham to finish near Tommy where the second car was parked up.
It was great to hit 130 miles for the month although I realised I had done 39.88 miles for the week!! Too late now to round up to 40 but satisfied with probably the longest mileage month for some time.
Nutrition
Two long runs this week meant that I needed to fuel on the way. On Friday I had 3 Hi5 sachets, a bag full of Squashies and dried apricots and probably a half packet of dextrose tablets. Trying to eat something every 30 minutes or so as well as drinking water with a hydration tablet in.
In general the nutrition side feels reasonably good, so long as I remember to eat.
Progress to Plan
Still ahead of plan, I did more miles than I needed to this week and my long run was longer than planned so all going well. No injuries to speak of, other than general aches and pains. I was pleased to wake up on Saturday with no major aches. In fact I probably could have ran but knew that I should take a rest. I remember doing half marathons and hardly being able to walk for a day after, so I am taking that as a win!
Key Learning
The shorter, faster runs are going well but the long runs are still a struggle. I do feel like I am recovering quicker after the long runs however so that is a positive.
Fish and Chips are a superb incentive at the end of a run!
The lighter mornings and lighter evenings make running much more fun!
Fave of the week
Quite a week of running and lots of people to thank.
- Sophie and Amy for running with me on Monday night.
- Laura and Leanne on Wednesday night for helping me to a decent progressive.
- Everyone who ran and chatted on Good Friday. Definitely one of the best Tempest Fit running days now.
This weeks FOTW has to go to KMac, who slowed her pace down to stick with me on Friday and Sunday.
So just under 40 miles for the week and 130 for the month of March. 6 weeks to go, so we are probably looking at 3 more weeks of longer runs and then starting to taper.
See you next week.
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