A week to go

Well the Fleetwood marathon is only a week away and I am really looking forward to the challenge.

We were away in Cornwall for over a week and this did mean I had to tinker with my training regime mainly due to travelling when I needed to do my long runs. I had to cut back on the mileage a little but made sure I did my long run of 18 miles. This was a killer ! 6 laps of 3 miles around our holiday cottage in Marazion including a very steep incline (6 times) and an additional hill. I did it though in a respectable time but Cornwall is a tough place to run.

On our return I did a 14 miler but felt absolutely exhausted from mile one and nearly had to call Helen out to come and collect me. I think the 18 miler the previous week, together with the travelling had just wiped me out.

I have decided to take it easy for the last two weeks and jump off the programme. I just need to make sure I get to the starting line fairly fresh. I think I have built up the endurance and rest is more important at this stage. I proved that this week. After my poor run on Monday I took 2 days off and ran superbly well on Thursday and pretty well today. I have run just 4 days this week and aim to take it even easier next.

For those that don’t know much about long distance running – this tapering down is generally the way to tackle a marathon. It gives the muscles time to build up stored glycogen (through carbo loading) and then hopefully off you go on the big day like an uncoiled spring.

I have reached the conclusion that my regime just didn’t suit me. I was slowing and feeling weaker and weaker rather than improving form. The programme I followed was an old style programme based on mileage. Next time I’m going to go for quality of training runs rather than quantity and see how that works out.

One reason why I chose the old style programme was the mileage involved. This now means I am way past Bordeaux and if my calculations are correct I will be crossing the Spanish border towards the end of my marathon. That would be nice ! Depends how much I run next week though.

I’m getting really excited now rather than scared. I will be aiming for a solid 4:30 marathon but my main goal is to run the whole thing without walking – whatever the time. Bring it on.

Beautiful St.Michael’s mount in Cornwall