Berlin Marathon Training: Week Two

This week's aim was to get my mind focused more on the fact I am marathon training again. Obviously following a training plan means I am not totally oblivious to it all! However I wanted to work on other areas of my life; improving my diet, getting back to better sleep habits, and also actually using my foam roller again! These are small things but I find they do help. I have managed a few added foam roller slots; forcing myself to get to the gym earlier than usual before classes and using the 'dead time' to release my muscles. My diet has been better (less chocolate!) and I am trying to get back into a routine of getting at least eight hours sleep a night. These good habits were however slightly thrown as I attended a very exciting conference at the weekend...

MONDAY: Body Pump class 

TUESDAY: an interval session which reduced me to a complete mess. Following a mile warm up I had 12 x 200m at 5k pace, with 200m recoveries in between. I have completed the session before and remembered finding it not too bad, just very stop-start. Today it felt awful though. I ran the intervals hard, and although at the time it felt like I was getting slower with each rep, I surprisingly actually managed to stick to roughly my 5k pace. Reviewing my splits afterwards though I noticed I ran the recovery periods too quickly, which is probably why I felt like death at the end; they were less like recovery and more just a continuation of running. I arrived at the gym for my abs class and must have looked as equally as rough as I felt since a few people asked if I was ok! Answer - er, not really!

WEDNESDAY: an early morning run, not something I usually do, but I was working later and still wanted to make it to my usual Body Pump class in the evening. My plan said five miles, but I planned a route knowing it wold be a little more; if was running early I wanted to make the most of the morning tranquility and enjoy something slightly more rural, rather than plodding the desolate streets. I finished with 7 miles, averaging 8.17 min/mile pace, which for an early run, without breakfast and incorporating some hills, I was pleased with. I made it to Body Pump later and feeling fresher having not ran directly before the class, I upped my weights on some exercises, totally killing my arms off in the process! 

THURSDAY: another hard run thanks to a lovely combination of summer warmth and a gusty and equally as warm wind. It felt more of a challenge than it should to hit my target paces, but I kept on track, running 5 miles with the middle three under 8 min/mile pace. 

​FRIDAY: Rest Day and travel to my weekend conference - the parkrun Annual Conference. I had been fortunate to be invited after recently taking on some volunteer work associated to a new project they are delivering. A conference based around running – perfection!  

SATURDAY: a parkrun conference would not be complete without an actual parkrun! The plan was for us all to take part in Tring parkrun (massively boosting their usual weekly attendance by about 150 in the process!), and I also joined a number of fellow delegates in running the 6 miles down to Tring from our base in Berkhamstead before the 9am start. As you come to expect with parkrun, it was wonderful morning and very memorable course to experience - full blog to follow.

SUNDAY: a conference which allocates time during the morning agenda for a Sunday run is simply the best conference! After breakfast we split into various groups to enjoy some group runs around the local area. It was a joy to explore; I didn’t really have a time or distance in mind, and simply took pleasure from chatting to new faces and discovering new routes which I would probably never get the chance to run again. In the end we completed an 8 mile out and back run, mainly trail based with some testing inclines thrown in for good measure. It was the perfect start to the final day. Whilst the conference did not help too much with my aim to improve my lifestyle (very little sleep and much more wine consumed than I am used to!), it was certainly worth it. ​