Manchester Marathon Training: Week 6

Six weeks in, ten weeks to go - the weeks seem to be racing by! At times it feels like I am getting through my training plan well and am in control; but at other times how quickly time seems to be elapsing sends a small wave of panic over me as I debate if I really am going to be ready to run a marathon again!

MONDAY: some light cross training and gentle stretching, combined with some harsh foam roller work (I am inflicting bruises on myself at the moment!) before my Body Pump class. 

TUESDAY: today hurt, a lot. This week's intervals switched from being fast bouts of work, to uphill efforts which really tested my legs. I ran 10k, planning a pretty uninspiring route which included 5 loops of the same circuit. This circuit featured a long, steep incline (Lindum Hill for anyone familiar with Lincoln!) which drew every ounce of my motivation to make me want to run up it five times. Each time I had to keep setting myself very small targets, breaking the hill into small sections such as the next lamppost, rather than facing the whole stretch as one big incline. At one point I wanted to quit; but I literally said to myself - this is the difference between a 4hr and a sub 4hr marathon finish - and with that I powered myself up the hill once more!

WEDNESDAY: I welcomed today's slower run; my quads were sore from the hills, and I also had the onset of a cold trying to take hold of my body which was making me feel a little lethargic. I still managed 7 miles and my Body Pump class afterwards, and actually felt better for exercising than I had during the day.

THURSDAY: I did not feel great again today, a cold still trying to take control of me and leaving me feeling energy-less. I ran though, telling myself to get it out the way today in case tomorrow I felt even worse! Again, once I was out running I actually felt a lot better; I ran 6 miles with 4 fast paced miles in the middle, which at times were against a very strong headwind. 

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: going out for 'just' a 5k run on my own accord felt a little pointless - I know in the scheme of things its not at all, but it just felt that way. Rather than run a slow 30min 5k as my plan suggested I thus decided to attack it a bit more, running a relatively fast time considering half of the distance was once more spent battling the powerful wind.

SUNDAY: I was really pleased with how my legs felt during the 14miles I covered on my long run. I kept almost waiting for something to kick in, a niggle, a discomfort, tiredness; but thankfully nothing really arrived! It was a damp, grey, and generally unpleasant morning (see image with added soggy sheep), but the miles seemed to tick by relatively quickly and I drifted off into my own world of thoughts (which post run I can never recall!). I ran faster than suggested in my plan, but this felt more than manageable and left me looking forward to the test of future long runs to come.