Week one of London Marathon 2020 training – take two. Its been hot, its been hard at times, but overall I have been impressed by how I have mentally applied myself to this second version of training; especially as I am still not optimistic that the race should or will be able to go ahead. The heatwave and a slight ramp in intensity has hit me a bit – this weekend I have been tired, not just in a running sense, but from lack of sleep and the general effort required to keep myself motivated and cool whilst working from my rather hot little house (this week has made me hate working from home even more!)

MONDAY: I switched up my home exercise routine a little this week, not only to relieve the monotony, but to focus a little more on some strength and conditioning exercises to compliment my running. I am missing the gym and also being able to have a sports massage, so I want to try and limit injury as much as possible.

TUESDAY: 5 very easy miles – the sudden rise it temperature caught me a little unaware and I realised I was running far too late in the morning to be able to do any of my other planned higher intensity sessions.

WEDNESDAY: I have not ran a tempo run since lockdown began, so initially I was a little nervous about this morning’s 7 miles, with the 5 middle miles aiming for 8 min/mile pace. I then reminded myself that I have actually been running a lot of my runs close to 8 min/mile without consciously trying during lockdown, so I had to be more confident in my current fitness level. The warmth did make the run a little more challenging, but I hit my target, with the middle miles all in the 7:50 min/mile region.

THURSDAY: this morning was a rather harsh introduction back into running some intervals; 7 miles with 4 x 1 mile reps is never easy, but at already nearly 20 degrees it was going to be an extra test. I was saved slightly by the fact the loop of streets I like to run intervals around was well shaded and I made sure to actively stop after each interval for a few seconds of the recovery period to try and keep both my composure and temperature down. Ambitiously I was aiming for the mile reps to be as close as possible to 7 min/mile pace, and I was quite pleased with my splits; 7.08, 7.00, 7.12, 7.17 min/mile respectively – my legs were feeling it on that last rep and on the cool down home afterwards!

So, the week I was waiting for arrived – the week London Marathon would be announcing their plans for the 2020 event. The Great North Run was postponed early in the week, and logic seemed to suggest a similar announcement would be arriving from the London Marathon organising team. However, for some reason all week I felt anxious about the announcement. I had a feeling deep down that it was not going to be what I wanted to hear – and if I am brutally honest what I wanted to hear was that they were postponing this year’s event and rolling all entries to 2021. My fears were unfortunately met, and on Friday morning I received a rather waffling email from the London Marathon about there ‘still being hope’ and how they were planning ‘creative ways to social distance’ and that ‘the world will be a different place in October’ – basically the London Marathon were again making no decision on the event and would update us further in late July.

If you know me and/or have been reading my blog you know I love the London Marathon, it holds a special place in my heart and has given memories and experiences that I will treasure for life. However, I no longer feel it is right to hold the event this year, we do not know what the world will look like in October, but I am pretty sure it will not be ready for gatherings of tens of thousands of people. As for creative ways to socially distance the event – I am also not sure how this will help keep the ethos and feel of the London Marathon, which we love for its spectator lined streets and the general mass participation craziness of it all.

​Perhaps my biggest frustration at the announcement was the seeming lack of consideration for the impact that marathon training has on people’s lives – we are now effectively faced with needing to start training for an event which still may not even happen. I am relatively lucky in the sense that I do not have too many other external factors to consider in my training, but I feel for people with families to juggle, work schedules which are currently nothing like normal, and even those who may currently not even be able to run outside – having to think about training amidst the current uncertainties we are all facing is tough.

I also have seen a few people commenting that if we love running, we should be pleased the London Marathon is trying to make the event happen. There is a difference between running and training for a marathon though, which probably only those who have trained for one will know what I mean. It becomes your life for 16 or so weeks and is much more than just doing a daily run. 

This week has seen me pass the three month marker of working from home/lockdown life. It is crazy when I think about how different my life has been during this time, and whilst there have been challenges, I continue to be upbeat and have been quite reflective this week about the positive parts of lockdown and the things I have learnt to appreciate and value much more.

Running wise, this week should also be my final week of ‘no training’ with the 16-week countdown to the rearranged London Marathon starting on Monday and consequently the beginning of my usual marathon training plan. Am I starting marathon training on Monday? The short answer is no. We have been promised an update from the London Marathon next Sunday and I am both hoping and expecting that they tell us this year’s race will not take place, which feels quite strange to admit. I do not want to run the race if it will not feel like the London Marathon we all know and love, and, most importantly, I also do not want to put myself or others as risk – sadly I cannot see a way the race can safely go ahead this year. Whilst the announcement is due to be made only one week into training, I do want to exert any level of emotional attachment to training or to psychologically begin to think about the weeks ahead – it feels like wasted energy. If by some miracle the announcement is that the marathon is going ahead, starting training one week later will have no real major impact on me, especially when I am running well at the moment anyway. So, I await next Sunday’s news, as I am sure many thousands of other people are too.  

MONDAY: online exercise classes

TUESDAY: an easy paced 10k to kick off my weekly running

WEDNESDAY: speaking of marathon training, this morning I opted for a 7 mile loop I run often during my marathon training cycles due to its relative flatness and the long straight roads which allow you to build up some rhythm. I aimed to run a bit quicker today, keeping my splits in the low 8 min/mile region.

THURSDAY: this morning I had to get out running earlier than normal as I had scheduled myself a 9am video meeting at work (what was I thinking?!) I wanted to do some speed work as I have skipped speed sessions a little bit of late, and thought some hill reps would be a good way to motivate myself. I ran to a steep hill fairly near to my house and logged 10 x sprints uphill with a slow recovery jog down. It was short, sharp and intense and afterwards as I ran a cool down mile home my legs were knackered!

I think it is safe to say over the past weeks we have all come to appreciate things in our life a lot more than we did before, or we have started to appreciate them in new ways. This week has emphasised to me just how important becoming part of a running club has been in my life. I have written about it before; but I was so apprehensive about belonging to any form of club for reasons I cannot really put my finger on, it just did not seem for me. However, being a member of Lincs S&C Run Club has added so much to both my running and life in recent months, and this week, despite not being at the stage yet where we are physically meeting as a club, I have really felt that sense of community and belonging.

One of our members - Tom - was undertaking a challenge to run seven half marathons in seven days to raise funds for the NHS, and throughout the week various members of the club were able to join him for socially distanced running. We also tracked his progress each day virtually on social media. His challenge really brought people together, gave us something to look forward to each day and to feel good about, and as someone else put, they had not seen so many happy smiling faces in so long. It is certainly something I will remember as a highlight when I think back to lockdown in years to come.

MONDAY: online exercise classes – I did these first thing in the morning today before my living room had a chance to warm up. That was the plan anyway – although it was still boiling. Is it too much to install home air conditioning during lockdown…!?

TUESDAY: today continued to be very warm still and I got out running a bit earlier to try beat the heat. I logged a steady 10k in the low 8 min/mile region, but what really struck me about running slightly earlier was the traffic on the roads! A few weeks back I had been weaving through an almost ghost town and now cars were whizzing past me almost disturbing my running zone. Again, perhaps I have taken for granted the peace lockdown has offered.

WEDNESDAY: with the knowledge I was joining Tom for a half marathon tomorrow as part of his challenge, today was supposed to ‘just’ be an easy 5 miles. I hit a quick rhythm from the start though and just never seemed to slow down. I was unable to join Tom until Thursday due to work commitments, but I did manage to get out and cheer him after my run as he ran past the top of my street. Stood at the top of my road scanning the horizon, waiting for a running figure to appear in the distance it almost felt like I was stood on the side-lines of a race again. I enjoyed my brief moment of overzealous cheering as he passed me and then headed back to the reality of a Zoom call!  

THURSDAY: after a hot start to the week I was really pleased today’s weather was pretty much perfect for our half marathon – a cooler air, but still mild, and no wind. I am honestly not sure where the 13.1 miles we ran went to though; we were joined by another club member on their bike and later another runner for the final miles, and it all just passed so quickly. I also had no idea what pace we were running as it just felt really comfortable and chatty, and as long as Tom was running ok (which he was, despite this being his fifth half marathon!) that’s all that seemed to matter. As I jogged home afterwards I felt really energised and positive; it felt like a good thing to be part of and had given me a buzz that we all have probably not felt for a while. Tom went on to smash the remainder of his challenge and has raised over £1,500 in the process.

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: this week’s ‘not Lincoln parkrun’ was practically a 5k swim. I stepped out the door in fairly heavy rain, which then proceeded to quickly become torrential for pretty much the entire 5k – I could barely even see coming down one road as the rain lashed into my face! Despite it sounding pretty horrendous, it was actually quite invigorating in a weird way. I opted for my hilly 5k loop and shaved another couple of seconds off my course PB – so maybe the rain encouraged me to get home a bit quicker at least!
 
SUNDAY: having already logged a longer run for the week, I planned today’s Sunday run to round off my mileage. I set a target of 38 miles for the week, which left me a precise 10.6 miles to run. I pushed the pace a little more than a long, slow run as it was cool and drizzly, and for some reason ten miles also seemed short in my mind! It felt good just to turn the legs over a bit quicker though and I ventured onto some paths I had not ran on for a while, knowing the rain would make them less busy.
 
Amongst the positive running this week, personally we also had to announce the news that the Lincoln City Half Marathon was being postponed until 2021 due to Covid-19. I have been involved with bringing this event to Lincoln heavily through my work, who are one of the joint organisers, and it has involved a lot of time, energy and passion from myself and my colleagues. However, we know this is the right decision for the safety of all and to ensure a positive event can take place, so I do not feel too disappointed. Perhaps I even feel relief that I now know we do not have to worry about how to make sure we keep thousands of runners safe, that's if mass participation events are even allowed to take place by September.

2021 will be special in many ways, but let’s also keep embracing the positive moments and good in what we have now too. ​