It would seem appropriate that on the day of the London Marathon I update you on my training progress for, the equally prestigious, Milton Keynes Marathon.

With only 8 days to go I’m in the process of tapering training.

Although if you are a regular reader of this blog you’re probably questioning my use of the word ‘tapering’. Tapering suggests that I’ve done a lot of training. I’ve struggled with time and motivation to get enough training in.

Last Sunday was going to be a long run but had signed up to do the Lincoln 10k with the OH – it was her first 10k – smashed it!

So the weeks long run was postponed (yet again) – I’m pretty good at making up excuses not to run far.

Having said that, I did manage a 20-miler on Tuesday. It did nearly kill me – felt a bit ill after, that was accompanied by a bout of the shakes – but I put that down to the fact that it was after a full day at work. Well I’m hoping so.

This was followed by a gentle 3-miler on Wednesday to check the legs still worked. I had no adverse reactions to the long run and legs recovered well.

I didn’t do Parkrun on Saturday morning – I was on babysitting duty whilst Helen and Marie tackled the Peterborough course – although I did manage a gentle 4 mile dog jog in the afternoon.

Which brings us right up to date. This morning I did a lovely early morning run in the sun through the local fields and woods: 9 miles. The last long(ish) run before the marathon. It felt good this morning. Even if I was a tad wind swept.

I’m still not entirely sure where I am in regards of times – I think a sub-4 is probably just out of reach. If I beat my previous marathon time of 4.29 I’ll be well happy.

That just leaves me to mention the charity I’m raising a few quid for…

It is a really worthwhile cause, click here if you have a few quid to spare. Cheers.

A week since the last marathon training blog post update. Now just to recap: one week ago my longest run was 17 miles. So one week on and I’d imagine you’re thinking that has moved to 19 or even 20 miles. Wrong. 

It has been a dodgy week to say the least. It’s been the last week of the Easter hols and as much as it was a good opportunity to get some miles under my belt, it never actually happened for a number of different reasons: workshop at school, overnight duty with the Samaritans and the never-ending allotment jobs.

Friday was long run day – mainly because I was going to be away for the weekend celebrating a couple of important birthdays with my brother and sister. 

Friday morning I set off, I had a very basic idea of where the run was going to take me. I wasn’t really feeling it, but was well aware that I needed a few more miles in the legs before the actual race. It was a reasonably bright start to the run, warm with only a 15% chance of rain. 

You won’t be surprised to hear that I got rained on. I was at the woods at the time and it actually chucked it down. I soon found myself sheltering under a tree as an almighty storm passed…..

  
I look pretty happy with the situation and actually I seem quite dry looking. Although I can assure you that I was far from dry. 

This was only about 7 miles into the run. I was wet and cold, so had the idea to run to the gym and do a bit on the treadmill. This I did. Didn’t help. Definitely wasn’t feeling it after all that. Ran home.

Total mileage = 9.45

Always next weekend.

On a more positive note; had a great night celebrating my little sister’s 40th and my big brother’s 50th….

  

26 days!? Where has the time gone? It only seems like yesterday when I entered the Milton Keynes Marathon. I remember thinking to myself: plenty of time to train for it. I even scoured the Internet for a training plan that I could follow. It seemed doable. In reality it wasn’t. I’ve struggled to fit in the runs.

However, I have managed to get some longer runs in. A few weeks ago I did a half-marathon, last week I managed 15 miles and yesterday I did 17 long miles. 

  
Which considering how busy I’ve been lately with everything – I’m pretty happy. Away again this weekend so I’ll be attempting to fit the long run in Friday morning – 19ish miles is the plan. Then it’s back to school for Y11’s last 7 weeks at school – this is always a very busy term. 

This blog post will leave you feeling one of two ways* – confused or impressed. This will depend entirely on how you came by this little tiny space on the World Wide Web.

Firstly, if you came here hoping to see ‘progress’ in my marathon training you may be feeling totally confused. You may have been expecting to see the latest mileage run, or my pace per mile, or even my inner most thoughts about the whole process. Sorry. 

However, if you came upon this blog post with no preconceptions or ideas about what the hell you’ve stumbled upon, or perhaps you are revisiting wanting to know the latest episode in my amazing life, prepare to be impressed…

I’m an allotment holder and have been for round about 8 months. This is going to be the first real opportunity to grow stuff after spending the end of last summer clearing what was a very overgrown plot.

Since then visits to the allotment have been few are far between, for a number of reasons:

1. It was winter and there was nothing growing. Yes, I know I should have been preparing the ground and stuff, but the winter is really cold.
2. Initially we didn’t have a shed – we had to lug everything down in the car – not good for motivation. Again, a pretty pathetic excuse.
3. Never really had the time – I know, this does not bode well for the future.

But:

1. It is now Spring and a lot warmer. 
2. We have a shed and all the stuff is in it. 
3. End of term holidays mean a couple of weeks to get on top of said bloody allotment.

The morning was spent weeding. Weeding and weeding and weeding. The result is an allotment that looks, in part, like an allotment. Not a ‘they know what they’re doing’ allotment, but an allotment all the same.

  
The afternoon was spent at a garden centre buying some stuff to plant. This whole growing things lark might actually work. Impressed?

* it is likely that it may leave you feeling more than just one of two feelings depending on how you feel about allotments.

Three things that probably sum up the last couple of weeks.

Not a lot of running…

The last week of the term is always a busy time and I struggled to get in any meaningful runs. Except a couple of very gentle Parkruns and a very rare visit to club training. Club training nearly killed me – definitely got a lot to do to get the speed back.

A bit more running…

Now the Easter Holidays are here I’m planning on trying to catch-up on the marathon training so that I can get somewhere between ready for it and barely ready for it. 

Good Friday was a good start. 6 good fast miles – legs still felt strong at the end of it.

Saturday was a visit to Peterborough Parkrun – a gentle first couple of laps followed by a fast lap. All good.

Sunday – the long run – 15 miles around Bourne, taking in a couple of local villages and a couple of laps at the woods. 

  
Felt good to get a few miles under the belt. More to follow over the course of the next couple of weeks.

Plus a shed…

Now if you’re an avid reader of this blog you’ll probably remember that I’m attempting to grow stuff on an allotment. At the end of the summer we managed to grow a few potatoes and then plant some over-wintering onions. 

Since then the onions have indeed grown, as has a lot of weeds. In fact, it turns out we’re really good at growing weeds. So as well as the running the plan is to get on top of the allotment – sort the weeds out and actually grow some stuff. 

In a bid to get serious we purchased a shed and even painted it in a fetching shade of orange complete with brown stripe (the tin said the orange should be Autumn Red). 

  
Next up: actually trying to grow something. 

Marathon training update, although important to point out that my original idea of following an actual ‘training schedule’ has gone out the window….

Monday – rest day – I ran 13 miles on Sunday, so it was deserved.

Tuesday – gym – hill reps on the treadmill – 45mins

Wednesday – rest day – I’m supposed to be running 5 days a week – I’m not

Thursday – gym – 7 miles at steady 9 min/mile pace

Friday – rest day – didn’t even get a takeaway!!

Saturday – Rutland Water Parkrun – easy jog

Sunday – Newton’s Fraction Half-Marathon at Grantham. Steady 9 min/mile pace – although felt knackered at the end – must have been the bloody massive hills you have to run up.

Only 49 days until the actual marathon. And of course you can sponsor me, have a look at previous blog post to find the link.