Berlin Marathon Training: Week Fourteen

Week fourteen - aka the week it all started to feel a bit real! I always have mixed feelings when the marathon starts to near; nerves, excitement, anxiety and also a little bit of sadness. I feel sad as suddenly the big event I have been building up to and focusing on for so long feels like it will soon be over; I even start to miss the thought of a 20 miler on a Sunday morning believe it or not!

MONDAY: Body Pump class

TUESDAY: a slight deviation from my plan, as after starting a new job at work I simply did not have the physical or mental energy for 9 miles of intervals! Instead I switched for Thursday's tempo run. This was a landmark run as for once I actually ran what I planned out in Biro pen on my hand before I left the door (yes I do this!), which was a warm up and cool down mile, with the four middle miles at 7.40 min/mile pace. The result was splits of 8.21, 7.42, 7.44, 7.44, 7.40 and 8.11 min/mile - almost perfect! 

WEDNESDAY: a comfortably hard 8 miles before my Body Pump class. I pushed this run a little as my plan stated it should be 'steady' as opposed to 'easy' and so I used my judgement to make it roughly 8 min/mile pace throughout. 

THURSDAY: the delayed 9 mile interval run. Even after putting it back to later in the week, I still really did not feel like doing this run. I pulled on my running gear though and faced the rather dismal weather conditions. Despite my reluctance I actually really enjoyed the run, the intervals were 10 x 400m with 200m recoveries, and whilst there were a lot of reps to complete, it really made the overall distance pass by quickly. My interval pacing was also good, between 5-10k pace, and left me with a pleasing overall average pace of 7.47 min/mile.

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: after a confidence building PB at Bassingham Bash last weekend I approached Lincoln parkrun today with the belief I could run well. I stood on the start with the mentality to go for it and just trust what my legs could do. It paid off. I knew as I was running I was heading for a good time as everything just felt in sync, and I even had extra in my legs for the final mile. I was not quite expecting the final result to be quite as good though - a sub 21 minute time of 20:55. I never thought I would dip below this marker (ignoring the slightly short course week!) and I was very happy with what I had achieved to say the least (see cheesey image!)!

SUNDAY: you know you have been marathon training when a 15 mile run feels almost short! Today's run just went by so quickly I almost did not believe my Garmin when I looked down mid run and saw I only had a few miles left. I ran with my fried as usual and it seemed a nice confidence booster to feel relatively comfortable throughout and still log an average pace of 8.25 min/mile. Now the taper begins..!