Marathon Journey – week 6
Week 6 – 26th Feb – 3rd Mar
So last week was a de-load week, a reduction in miles, meaning this week we are back in full training, stepping the miles and the intensity up again. Boy did we do that. The hardest week so far both physically and mentally, reflected in not many photos taken! I ran 5 days this week, using the extra day in February to round up the miles doing 6 runs in total.
If you would like to catch up on the previous 5 weeks, you can find them here:
Please note this reminder below, this is not intended as any kind of marathon golden training plan, far from it. It’s purely my attempt at some kind of plan to get me over the line in May.
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 26th February
Back to running on Monday and a nice easy run to start the week. Nice and steady along the seafront and up through Ropery Walk. Straight up to Princess Road then turn right and along to the Green bridge. then up to the Police Station and at Parklands, double back down to the Station. Down Denehouse Road to the seafront and back to the car park.
I got to run with Muriel for quite a bit of this run. Muriel and I started this group together 4 years ago so it was good to run together again.
Wednesday 28th February
Technical run for the week was a tempo half and half. The idea being to build strength to try to avoid the start fast and then tail off type scenario you sometimes face in longer runs. The change up in pace for miles 3 and 4 is designed to teach you to start slower and build the pace rather than the other way round.
The route was the reverse of Monday night with a little extra added in to get me to 4 miles. The plan went well as you can see from the splits below with mile 4 being quicker than mile 3 and overall a progressive run where each mile is quicker than the last one.
It also meant I got to run with 2 groups tonight starting with Sally D’s group and then catching up with Critchies group and being chased by the Jets!
Some time ago my running guru, Jen T set me some interval training and I set up some segments on Strava so Could see how I was doing. You can see below that I set a record on one of those segments tonight without really trying. That’s progress I hope!
Thursday 29th February
As we had an extra day in February this year and I had dome 98.5 miles in Feb, I thought I may as well round up to 100, so slotted in one more run. Just a couple of miles but enough to get me to that milestone.
Saturday 2nd March
As most know, Saturday Foxes run is probably my favourite of the week and it’s back today. Some notable foxes missing today due to injury, weekend away and even one slept in!
I plotted a 5 mile route round Seaham but I really wasn’t feeling it today. I think the long run planned for Sunday was playing on my mind. It was also quite icey on the ground so I was taking it easy.
The route took us through Dalton le Dale up to Cold Hesleden then down the old railway track between Parkside and the Golf Course for any old Seaham exiles reading this.
I ran with Sally D for most of this route and she did her best to keep my spirits up but it just wasn’t there today.
We then went into the group run and Sally had planned 2 routes today, a 3.5 mile route and a 6 mile route. With the long run tomorrow and the early foxes run, I was happy with the 3.5 mile route.
A nice route along the seafront from the top of the marina and up Byrons Walk then past the old Northlea school to Station Road and then back down to the seafront via another old Railway line.
I also got to run with some members I haven’t ran with before, thanks to Susan and Anne for the company.
Slow and steady today but 8.5 miles in the tank. As a group we are also doing a running challenge in March. We have split into 5 teams and as a team we are running the distance f the first 3 States on Route 66 – 631 miles in total. First team to cross the line wins!
Our team has some coffee nuts in it so our theme is coffee based. I won’t give the full name of our team on here (my Mam might be reading :-)). It was nice to have a nice cup of coffee at the end of this mornings runs.
Sunday 3rd March
Long run day is here! It’s not been the best week up to now, so I started this run with some trepidation. If I could complete it though, it would be my longest run ever!
The route was a winding route from Dalton Park up to South Hetton and down Easington Lane, through Murton, Hawthorn then down to the seafront.
It was a cold morning again with ice still on the ground which was good as it meant we kept the pace down at the start.
As we were running through Murton about 6 miles in we bumped into Lynne and Anth, a couple of my faves for a welcome chat. Lynne is a legendary runner and had good advice for us.
We then went back round Dalton Park and then took a loop round Hawthorn. The idea being to keep the run as flat as possible. As we got back to Cold Hesleden and then turned down towards the seafront we had maybe 2 miles of downhill and then flat on the seafront.
At the top of Hell Hill we bumped into another legend Christine who had just stormed up the hill we were about to descend. We were almost 11 miles in at this stage so perfect time for another chat and photo with Christine.
As I mentioned the next 2 miles were comfortable going downhill to the seafront. We got to VT car park on exactly 14 miles. We wanted to get 16 though so we tuned around and ran back along the seafront with the intention of keeping it flat.
This was the hardest 2 miles without doubt, maybe the hardest 2 miles I have done.
Imposter syndrome loomed heavy at this point – “What am I doing here?”, “Why have I done this?”, “I can’t do this” were all playing on my mind. But as I sit here writing this on Sunday night, I have done it and I can do it. I need to take that positive into next week as it certainly won’t be any easier next week.
Nutrition
Very happy with my fuelling this week. I seem to have found what I like on the long runs with a mixture of Hi-5 sachets, dried apricots, dextrose tablets and squashies keeping me going along with water.
Progress to Plan
Still ahead of plan with the long run this week supposed to be 11 miles, so I did 5 miles more. The technical runs were good too with pace ahead of where I was supposed to be.
Key Learning
Wow, had to dig deep this week. After the long Sunday run I was seriously considering packing it in. As the day has gone on my legs have not felt as bad as I thought they would and as I have said in previous weeks so much of this journey is in the head. Writing this blog has been quite cathartic to be fair, trying to find the positives in the week.
The longer the mileage is the harder this is going to get, that’s to be expected so it isn’t going to get any easier. Some weeks will be better than others and you have to take the rough with the smooth. This week was very rough, but those are the weeks you have to dig deep and push through.
There are positives, Wednesday was really good and I felt stronger as the run went on, my pace was ahead of where I wanted it to be. I also did 5 runs rather than 4, maybe shouldn’t have done the extra run but its all miles in the legs as they say.
Fave of the week
Again a tough one to call this week but first some thank yous.
- Great to run with Muriel a couple of times this week.
- Great to meet some newer members I haven’t had the chance to run with before, thanks to Anne and Susan H especially.
- Sally D for keeping me going on Saturday foxes.
- Thanks to all the foxes for turning up and making a fun morning.
- Christine, Lynne and Anth for the chats and inspiration on long run day.
- Talking about inspiration, again thanks to all the long runners for doing what you do. It’s so inspiring to see everyone doing their best and smashing the long runs.
- Also thanks to my team mates in the Star Bucking coffee nuts team. The chat in the group has been great this week.
So to Fave of the week it has to go to Kmac this week for keeping me going on the long run but for also being around on a couple of the other runs this week. That long run today was tough and here Duracell bunny type personality kept me going.
Step up in miles this week to 34 miles, getting close to the most miles I have ran in a week but more to come.
Have a great week and see you next week.
