Hello my little legion of foot soldiers,

There's so many of you out there running and trying to make up for lost time due to the lengthy visit we had from Mr Snow, and there's a fair portion of you for whom the current word is PANIC. But in the words of Corporal Jones from Dad's Army "Don't panic, don't panic".

If you must press a panic button, press this one.

Yeah, you might be panicking after many of your sessions have been scuppered (have you not heard of using the treadmill or cross-training?), but there's no reason for panic... really. If the Virgin London Marathon is your training goal, there are still just over 13 weeks of training time and that's plenty, as long as you are not starting totally from scratch (come on, own up, I bet some of you are).

Aside from not panicking, what should you do then?

1. Have a cup of tea - it's the answer to everything (isn't it?)

2. Take a look at your training plan. If you've missed a lot of sessions due to the snow and icy conditions don't just carry on following the plan religiously. You need to take into account those missed sessions, so that will mean slightly reducing the target aims of each session which are laid out before you. Your plan is a guide not a straightjacket.

3. If you are following a 16-week training plan and started in the first week of January, you should by now be well into week 3 of your plan! If you missed a lot of sessions in weeks 1 and 2, then maybe you should be substituting a few sessions from those weeks in place of those listed in week 3, to ensure you don't do too much too soon.

4. Whatever you do, do not push yourself too hard make up lost ground, especially if you are a first time marathoner. This could well lead to injury and potentially put your participation in the race at risk. Better to be at the race slightly 'undercooked' than carrying an injury brought on by your training load, or even not being able to run at all.

5. Make sure you rest. You might think Footnote has lost some of his toenails for saying this when you've been doing lots of resting due to snow, but rest is an important component of any training program. Without it your body won't recover and your training gains will be minimised or even non-existent. 

6. Smile and keep your fingers crossed! Come on, this marathon lark is meant to be fun after all! Keep your fingers crossed that the snow doesn't return, or if it does, consider cross-country skiing as a cross-training alternative!

7. If you really are going to panic, then panic constructively.

I hope you have all taken the advice from my last blog and signed up for some races. If not, I will have to come round and leave a sizeable footprint on your collective derrieres.

Happy running and don't forget to let me know how you are all getting on.

Tags: running training, snow, training plans, panic,

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