Loco in Tokyo... by phil78

In November I completed my first marathon in New York and now Im attempting my second here in Tokyo where I live on March 22nd. I found writing a blog for NY a great way to gauge my progress and help me keep on track so here I am again with about 15 weeks of trainng ahead of me.

New York was such an amazing experience I know that Tokyo cant possibly be as good. My family and friends were there in NY, I raised way more money for charity than I expected, the weather was gorgeous, I ran the time I wanted to.. it really was perfect and know that Tokyo cant live up to that so I've had to set myself new realistic goals. My time in New York was 3:46 so for this one I'd like to get nearer 3:30 though if I beat my PB then I'm gonna be happy. I'd also like to get down to below 70kgs. I started runing as a way to lose weight but Ive put a bit back on since NY. Time to get rid of that flab! Tokyo is supposedly a faster course and I have a decent base to start training from so I dont think its too unrealistic to knock that time down to 3:30. Having chatted with a few friends who had similar first marathon times this seems like an achievable target. The problem I have is that its snowboarding season now so I wont be able to do any running at weekends effectively. Im hoping that the fitness from snowboarding will be somewhat transferable but the long runs which were such an important part of my training for NY may be more difficult to fit in.

So what will I do differently from NY? Firstly I think I need to break my training up a little. All I did was run at an average pace over different lengths with one long run a week gradually building up the mileage. I hit the wall in NY at mile 19 so I dfinitely think I need to try and aim for a bit more mileage to avoid that but also break it up with some hill training and some speed work.

Anyway thats about it. Have had a few runs this week, my first for 5 weeks and to say Im rusty would be a HUGE understatement. Obviously Xmas in the next few weeks so fair bit of drinking/eating/smoking and not a lot of running but come January Im looking to be back with a vengeance!