It may only be the third week of my training, however the demands have already started to increase. I am following a new training plan for this sixteen week block, and have made some tweaks and changes from the previous plans I have followed. As part of this, I knew to expect things to 'ramp up' a little sooner than maybe I am used to. I have coped well this week though, and I can feel my body adapting, which is what I ultimately want to happen!

MONDAY: Rest Day - due to work commitments I had to switch my usual strength session to Tuesday.

TUESDAY: so far, this winter has been relatively kind to us runners; however it does mean when a cold spell hits it does shock and frustrate me a little! I woke feeling refreshed and motivated to attack some intervals, however stepping outside early before work I was disgruntled to see sparkling icy paths and some white patches. I stuck with my intervals; running 7 miles with 4 x 1 mile reps, but had to be cautious, pushing when I felt safe to do so, and reining things in a little when I was unsure. My paces were not what I would have liked, but I think they were realistic in the conditions. Body Pump class in the evening.

WEDNESDAY: another cold morning, but thankfully no frost or ice. 7 more miles were on the plan, this time at an easy pace. Easy pace running can be tough sometimes in the real cold weather; you almost feel like you want to go quicker to try warm up! I kept disciplined though, letting my legs turn round steadily; easy miles are just as important. 

THURSDAY: today was track night with Run Club and with a tough session of 400m reps planned, I rested in the morning rather than running a handful of 'junk' miles. I also wanted to keep my legs fresh to test myself on the track. I felt able to push hard; and was really pleased with the consistency and speed I managed across the 12 x 400m I ran; logging splits of 6.04, 6.04, 6.08, 6.04, 6.04, 6.04, 6, 6.04, 6.16, 6.12, 5.56 and 6 min/mile. I would not have ran as well without the support of my club mates though; the first 8 reps I ran with a fellow female, who is quicker than me, but we worked together to pace the laps and time the rest periods, and she both challenged me and kept me consistent. She rested after 8 reps, and I aimed to do 'just' 2 more. Without someone to run with these next two reps felt harder, and my pace dipped by a few seconds. I was going to call it a day at 10, but a few other guys convinced me to run another two reps with them; in a pack of runners I found some pace again and I actually ran my quickest 400m of the lot. A tough session, but I enjoyed the challenge and camaraderie. 

FRIDAY: Rest Day

​SATURDAY: lining up on the start line of Lincoln parkrun today a fellow parkrunner I usually run close to asked me if I was 'going for it' today; 'yes' I answered confidently. After a few weeks of being a bit off the pace, I really felt like I had to try attack parkrun today and wake my legs up! My first lap was very quick and although I tried to hang onto some other runners, I knew I had to slow down. I did, but gritted my teeth to hold my pace for the final 2 miles, finishing in 21:06. This was my best time for a while, over a minute quicker than previous weeks and was also enough to see me finish as first female. This week was also my friends 100th parkrun - I love seeing people reach their milestone achievements at parkrun; I know how much my weekly 5k fix has changed my life and seeing others reach a milestone I guess it feels like a bit of a celebration of how it has impacted their life too. 

SUNDAY: a sixteen mile run in week three of training is certainly a step up for me; however I felt pleased with how I coped with today's long run. Considering a few weeks ago I was struggling to run more than 3 miles without coughing my lungs up, and a couple of weeks ago I ran with stabbing pain in my side - its all good progress! My legs felt a little tired from the week so far, so I aimed to log some easier miles. Again what really pleased me was my consistency in pacing; I ran splits with only a few seconds variation throughout, sticking close to 8:30 min/mile. Passing 13 miles my legs tightened for a short period, but mentally I was strong enough to stay calm and head for home. I want to log a few more longer runs this block to build my endurance, and this was a good start. ​

Entering the second week of training and I am already starting to feel some small improvements in my running. It may only be week two of training but I have also logged 39 miles of running, which is quite a step up. I feel good for it though and have even manged to balance some non-running life 'stuff' within the week. I am proud of this too - in the past I would sometimes let marathon training dominate my entire life, but as I become more experienced as runner, I am also learning to find that balance.

MONDAY: a return to Body Pump after a few weeks break. This week my coughing has virtually gone (thank goodness!) and whilst some soreness remained in my side at the start of the week, I felt able to return to doing some strength work.

TUESDAY: a return to strength training felt good, however inevitably I also felt the effect of it today. DOMs hit almost instantly - forget any delay! I had 5 tempo miles on the plan, but found it tough to hit my desired half marathon pace for the middle three miles. I did scrape under the 8 min/mile marker at least, and I was no too hard on myself due to the soreness I was feeling in my legs.

WEDNESDAY: 6 easy miles, which felt needed for my legs and I easily kept the pace toward the 8:40 min/mile region.

THURSDAY: with my muscles feeling less sore I attempted a double run day, with my own interval run planned for the morning and a Run Club session in the evening. Despite messing up using my watch on the intervals (it has been that long since I last did any I was out of practice!) I was really pleased with how I ran. I ran 6 miles with 4 x 1 mile reps; I focused on effort rather than pace for the reps and logged some respectable splits of 7.33, 7.15, 7.18 and 7.39 min/mile repeated along a circular loop which did include a slight hill! Later at Run Club I added 5 more miles during an 'out and back' route battling some interesting headwind!

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: this week Saturday became long run day as I had a friends birthday Saturday evening with the promise of homemade cocktails. I wanted to celebrate my friends birthday, I wanted to drink cocktails, I wanted to have some fun and I simply did not want marathon training to stop this. Amongst my own demands I also did not want to miss parkrun! The solution was to incorporate parkrun into my long run - something I have never actually tried before. I ran 4 miles down to Lincoln parkrun, completed parkrun, and then 7 miles home after. It certainly made 14 mils go by very quickly, and was a bit of a new challenge. I tried to keep the 4 mils down to parkrun steady, and the fact it was a very icy day helped me keep my parkrun pace in check a little (I am not very confident running on ice at the best of times!) The post parkrun miles were not as comfortable and I could feel that fact I had some extra pace exertion in my legs. I dug in though, embracing what was turning into a lovely day, and finished with an overall average pace of under 8:20 min/mile. With my long run banked, I was then able to enjoy my evening (which did include a lot of cocktails!) 

SUNDAY: after a lovely Saturday night it felt good to 'only' have 3 miles to run today. I enjoyed these later on, when I felt a bit more myself, keeping it easy paced and shaking the legs out a little. 

As you will see in the photo included, this week I have also been looking after my friend's kitten at my house. Through my cat sitting, I have learnt that if you want some procrastination for getting out the door and running a kitten playing with your shoelaces is certainly a good one!

There have been a few 'London Marathon Training Week One's' in my life across the past years; of which I am really grateful for. This latest 'Week 1' did feel a little different though with the remnants of a four weeks worth of illness in my body, as well as painful ribs on the right side of my body brought on from relentlessly coughing. I was therefore not going into Week One of training feeling physically at my most prepared. This has meant what normally has been seen by me as quite a 'light' week of training has felt a little more challenging than normal as I fight my way back to full fitness. I know I am not far from it though and I just need to be prepared to work that little bit harder, endure a bit more discomfort and keep my goals fresh in my mind over the next few weeks. If anyone has a cure for a cough though please also let me know - my ribs would certainly appreciate it!

MONDAY: Rest Day - I wanted to go back to Body Pump this week, but I knew it was not wise with my ribs. I did not feel assured in my physical ability and also was scared of making myself worse. 

TUESDAY: an easy paced 4 miles to kick start the running element of training - it was not hard for me to run easy for once, as this pace has formed the majority of my running the last few weeks!

WEDNESDAY: this run felt a little more like marathon training; 7 steady miles. I wanted to run sub 8:30 min/mile pace, but at first I struggled to hit this, which worried me. I did find my stride though, averaging 8.22 min/mile overall, although it took more effort than I would like. Reflecting I think it was a combination of my recent pattern of just running easy pace, and also the fact 7 miles is the longest I have ran early morning for a while - so the run was a little bit of a shock to my system. 

THURSDAY: back at Run Club and back at the track. As many members were beginning to restart their running after a bit of a Christmas break, we had opted for a slightly lighter session on the track, focusing on form and with some repeated reps at the end. This was good news as I am not sure my body would have coped with all out track efforts! I had 3 miles on my plan, and almost to perfection, logged just over this throughout the session averaging around 7 min/mile pace.

​Tomorrow marks the start of my 16 week training pursuit ahead of the London Marathon in April. It feels like a while since my last marathon training block ahead of Chicago Marathon in October, and mentally I feel refreshed and ready to work hard again – I am even prepared for those 5:30am training alarms! Physically the last couple of weeks have not been perfect prep though; I have been battling on with a cold/cough/flu like virus which seems to be widespread this winter. Over the festive season running has not been as consistent as I would normally like, although on the flip side, perhaps you could say if I had perhaps rested more from running then maybe I would have shaken my germs a little quicker... I could not resist the plethora of parkrun opportunities which were presented to me over the past two weeks though, and these have formed the majority of my harder intensity runs. In between I have managed a few runs, not much in distance and keeping the pace comfortable – mainly because the longer I tried to run the more my cough threatened to take over my body!

The highlights of my festive period of running have been my parkrun trips which included Ipswich on Christmas day – a festive blast around Chantry Park, which I remember well from Cross Country at School, and Bury St Edmunds parkrun in the ‘betwixmas period’ - the muddiest run I have possibly ever completed, with a sticky, boggy course creating some fun challenges whilst also highlighting my road running abilities!

On New Year’s Days I took on the parkrun double at Normanby Hall and Scunthorpe which both saw huge numbers, the latter 919 runners, which is the biggest parkrun I have been involved in. I ran well at Normanby, feeling like my cold was shifting, however got a bit stuck in the crowds at Scunthorpe and wasted far too much energy trying to catch up with the frontrunners and found it a tough little leg test. I was really pleased that my work colleague who lives near Normanby also challenged himself with the parkrun double; he normally swears that 5k is his max but proved himself wrong. In term of longer runs for myself, I have managed a 6.5 miler with my sister; when we both didn’t feel that great but each other’s company spurred us on, and a couple of 5 milers.

This weekend felt like a bit of a breakthrough with my virus though; I felt and ran better back at my home Lincoln parkrun in the first event of 2020, finishing in 21:30 – by no means my best time, but getting back closer. Today I then managed my longest run for a couple of weeks; 8 miles at a better pace too. The only niggle which still remains is a rather pathetic coughing induced injury. After relentless coughing, on New Year’s Eve I finally felt my body give up a little, as the muscles downs my right hand side strained and pulled. It hurt a lot at the time and at one point I debated whether I would actually make my New Years Day parkrun plans, but I have managed to keep running. I think the adrenaline of running overrides the pain slightly, although certainly not completely, however day to day the pain has often been very intense, like a sharp stabbing. Its not pleasant I have to say, and I can tell my body is not aligned right as I try compensate the muscle imbalance. Physio is booked for Friday needless to say!

Looking ahead to next week and the start of my training, it feels good to have a plan to follow, as whilst I have enjoyed some relaxed weeks, I am ready for structure again. My goal for the London Marathon will be to try and hunt for that PB again – so something in the 3:30 region! It will require hard work and determination, but I have been close before, so I have to remain confident, learn from the past and draw on the experiences of others around me. I will be committed to training and developing myself as a runner, whilst also continuing to develop my life around running - there is one I promise!
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The next adventure begins... ​