Berlin Marathon Training: Week Eight

The half way point - eight weeks until race day. 

MONDAY: Body Pump class

TUESDAY: usually I prefer longer intervals as opposed to lots of short reps, but today's 7 miles with 4 x 1 mile intervals I found very hard. My legs did not feel the freshest and each mile seemed a lot longer. I stopped for a few seconds after a couple of the reps simply to try gather myself and convince myself I could do it. My paces were not quite what I was aiming for but were a lot better (7.30, 7.25, 7.21 and 7.32 min/mile) than how awful they felt running in practice! Abs class after. 

WEDNESDAY: I was very grateful to see today's run was to be at 'easy' pace after yesterday's struggle. Having said that, it seemed my easy pace was an average of 8.19 min/mile, which is not where I would normally consider my 'easy' pace to be, but it did feel comfortable. Body Pump class after. 

THURSDAY: ten miles, which mentally seemed like a long distance to cover towards the end of the working week. I therefore tried to switch off from my watch and not focus on pace or how far I had covered. This did help make the run more manageable, but also meant my pace was literally all over the place, and in the final few miles I really felt I was dragging my legs home! I made it though, with an 8.21 min/mile average. 

FRIDAY: Rest Day

​SATURDAY: after a couple of weeks edging increasingly closer to my 5k PB I had hoped to continue the trend this week at Lincoln parkrun. It was not to be though; I simply did not have the extra push needed in my legs and also paid the price slightly for a very quick first mile as I darted around the many runners who were enjoying a Saturday morning 5k - definitely not a complaint, as I love to see Boultham Park full! I still ran a 21.41 time, which I cannot grumble about in week eight of marathon training!

SUNDAY: I was completing my long run alone today, the prospect of which did not really fill me with too much joy. I enjoy company and I also find it helps distract me from focusing on pace, distance etc. too much. Running on my own felt more like I was in 'training mode' rather than pure 'running for enjoyment mode'. I aimed to run around 8.30 min/mile and actually finished with an 8.24 min/mile average, which is easily my best pace ever for a longer run. It was not easy by any means and certain miles were really tough, but mentally being in that 'training mode' meant I refused to slow down even when it got hard. I am proud of the progress I have made over the years, I would never have managed anything like today's run even a year ago, but I am also realistic. Today's pace did not feel sustainable for another 10 miles and I know I will need to rein it back a bit for the big day in Berlin. ​