Darling Buds of May....

Before you ask this isn’t some obscure reference to the recent events in British politics, rather it is my attempt to understand where my training should be heading next.

Reset

It’s been a strange time for me post-London. The main goal for the whole year had been to see whether I could hit a sub-2:50 marathon time, I did this at London, and now feel lost. This wasn’t something that I had planned for. The plan I had envisaged after London was to train hard for a number of 10ks, which would culminate in obtaining a personal best at a half marathon in October or November. This would potentially lay the foundations for deciding whether to go for a Winter marathon to see if I could improve my time from London. There is no reason why I can’t continue with this plan for a revised time for a Winter marathon, but I am still thinking about how and what the commitment will look like post-London.

After having some good exchanges with my coach about new paces that would be needed to get a personal best in the Winter, I have to say that I was pretty shocked at the new speeds I would need to be training at. I knew that I would need to work harder than I did in my training for London, but if I am completely honest I had never even considered running at those paces and what they would equate to for the shorter distances I intend to run over the Summer/ Autumn.

I think that’s partly where the feeling of being lost is coming from; in that I had never thought about running at those paces before that came as quite a shock. Indeed the time I ran at London was a shock to me as well. So there is definitely an element of not feeling entirely confident with what I have got to do next, which I appreciate is a key component of achieving my goals. If I don’t believe or cannot know how I can complete my training, then it’s certainly not going to help when I line up for a race.

VLM 2019: a day of reckoning

"Surely you are on for a personal best at London this year?", "just take it easy if you don't feel that good on the day" and "remember if the weather is like last year don't push too hard". I am sitting with my family on a warm Easter weekend in a homely Italian restaurant. The discussion has turned towards how everyone thinks I will do at the marathon. I have found- surprisingly- that my family have become uncannily good at predicting what I will do at each marathon, on the basis that they have been following my training and build-up races to that particular marathon. Numbers are banded around and bets are taken; with 2hrs 50mins and below even being mentioned as an outside chance for me. I laugh and say that would be a dream for me if I was to get near those times at London. My repeated attempts at reaping, what I would consider, a great run have yet to be the outcome from two years' worth of training. My stomach is full and my body feels relaxed (one of the many benefits of the taper period); so my thoughts- are quite naturally- turning to when I can lay down to sleep off all the food I have eaten.

Nevertheless the discussion about my potential times at London this year cause my stomach to tighten, various parts of my legs tense up and my mind to drift off to the all training I have done leading up to this year's London marathon. I still stand by Charlie Spedding's dictum- in his book 'Last to First'- that the London marathon is not a marathon for first-timers to be doing if they want to race it well. From previous experience the crowds that are meant to carry you around the course, lure you into a false sense of speed as you are carried along the course without even realising that your precious energy (and personal best potential!) is being sucked out along the first half of one of the greatest marathon courses in the world. By the time you are over half way through the course, it's too late and that feeling of ease in the first half turns to discomfort. The crowd becomes a wall of noise distracting you from the painful task of finishing a race that you have badly misjudged. You are a fighter who has walked into the harsh sting of an exquisitely timed counter-punch. That surprise is getting to and from Canary Wharf, so by the time you have made it back to the continuous crowds from mile 21 onwards your final remnants of willpower have been eroded and you are clinging on to the thought of just getting these last miles done. Yes I have definitely fallen prey to the temptation to go out too fast at London. Yet I have seen so many people achieve such wonderful runs and times at London, that I still hold out hope that I can do the same...