Trevor's first marathon by trevchap

Two sessions of hard running so far this week. 

Still felt a bit heavy legged after Saturday but 5.25 miles at (nearly) 10k pace.  44 minutes.

Then today ran home from work, 7.8 miles.  Did 15 minute hard runing with 2.5 minute recoveries in between.  1 hour 6 minutes.  I know that makes the last hard run only 13.5 minutes but I reached home quicker than I expected.

I delayed leaving work when the heavens opened just as I was starting to pack up.  The very heavy shower passed and the skies looked reasonably bright so I took a chance.  guess what.  At the furthest point from home/work down it came again.  Wind was noticable as well, so given the weather time was pretty good.

I toyed with a theory that I should run the marathon by running 10k at 50 mnute pace, walk to recover for 5 minutes, repeat 4 times.  Worked out that would leave me 2k less the distance walked to go in 25 minutes to go under 4 hours. 

Problem with the theory is putting it into practice.  First 10k would be Ok.  Second might just about do.  After that forget it.  Oh well, it gave me something to occupy the mind while running.

20.5 miles today.  The good news: Both legs came through unscathed.  Feel as confident as I can now that they can last out the full distance.  I have had to sacrifice some mileage to nurse them through but I think it has been worth it.

Little bit further than last week but a lot slower. 3hours 13mins.  Certainly more realistic than last weeks time but I was still totally out on my feet by the end and I did have to walk for 5 minutes at mile 18 so I am still not getting it right.  I deliberately tried to slow my pace at the start but it is so difficult not to fall into a comfortable pace as soon as you stop thinking about it.

On that display there is no way I could have done another 6 miles.  One more long one next week.  That will tell me whether this was one of those days or whether I am going have to revise my targets.

Used 3 carb gel packs.  Didn't really notice any benefit to the first 2 (at 1 & 2 hours) but the third one gave me a boost and I was able to raise my knees on the last bit but it only seemed to last about 5 minutes.  Not enough water with me to last over 3 hours though.  That could be the problem.  Won't really know about that until the race as I don't want to carry litres of water around with me on long runs.

Tonight, 5 miles in just under 45 minutes.  It was steady but probably a bit slower than I thought I had done as I felt I was pushing a bit, certainly running at faster than race pace and yet it was only 9 minute miles.  Still it was the third run at pace in three days so the muscles can be forgiven a slight drop in performance.

Day off tomorrow.  Plan to put my feet up and do little ahead of long run on Saturday.  Feeling very nervous about it.  Can't afford anything to go wrong, no muscle twinges or strains as I have to complete it and complete it in a way that gives me confidence that I can go a further 5 or 6 miles in 4 weeks time. 

Need to try and relax and hopefully that will relax the body and help to prevent injury.  Lillywhitered was right the other day saying that I was getting a case of pre race jitters.

The London marathon magazine has arrived.  It has all the instructions about race day and advice for spectators etc.  It really hit me that the whole thing is real now.  And it also makes me realise how many things there are to think about and plan for. 

But it also makes me really excited and I can't wait.  Bring it on.