Oh marathon Training, how did I end up here?
Last year I was rejected from the Virgin London Marathon ballot. It wasn’t the first time and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last time either. Hey ho, life moves on. Well the few weeks following it felt like all I saw was people getting excited over it.
It was the first year that I got majorly jealous.
It was all I could think about. I always kind of wanted London to be my first. That’s not to say I think it will be the best though. My reasoning being because it’s such a huge event, and it’s one that feels like it doesn’t come with pressure. It’s expected that people finish slower, they’re walking and enjoying the day.
That said, the itch was just too much. I needed to just try a marathon. By the time I decided this a Spring marathon just wasn’t likely. I didn’t have enough time to feel ‘ready’ (Do you ever feel fully ready though?)
I discovered the Chester Marathon weekend, and saw that they had a Metric Marathon – 26.2km instead of miles. For a few weeks I was set on doing that as an ‘entry’ kind of race, having never run more than 13 miles before. But then the more I thought about it, the more I knew I’d regret just not going for the full…
And so I signed up to the Chester Marathon – October 2019
Basically here’s what my next few months look like. I’ll be doing updates regularly to share how I’m progressing, share any failures and the like.
The Running
I’m still using Runner’s Connect for all my marathon training, and honestly without it I’d be so lost in trying to find a good routine and motivation.
For full transparency I was gifted this membership last year in exchange for a review. When I questioned about paying to renew after that free year was up in May , I was told I had the membership comped forever. I have not been asked to mention them or write anything else since those first reviews, this is just because I fully use them now.
My current schedule has me running 4x per week. It changes regularly, but there is always at least one speed session and one easy paced long run. The other two tend to be easy paced runs, but sometimes one of them is another speedy workout. It gives me a good mixture and means I don’t get bored doing the same old thing week in week out. I’m currently working my weekly mileage up, and it is currently sitting at around 40km ish, roughly 25 miles.
2019 Stats So Far
- 110 runs
- 115 hours run
- 971km // 603 miles
- 1 pair of trainers completely worn out, now wearing separate road and trail shoes
- 1 blister
- 0 toenails lost
Still on track for getting to 1000 miles this year I think! I’ve done the most miles I’ve ever done within a year already, so whether I hit the 1000 or not I’ll still be happy.
Means I’ll definitely have to keep up the consistency though after the marathon. Not sure how easy that will be – I think I’ll be needing a break to be honest. However I’m also taking part in the 401 USA 2020 Virtual RunWalk challenge, so there’s that to keep up too. The big goal is to hit 1310 miles from March 2019-2020, but there are milestones in between 0-1310 so everyone will get a top to represent how many miles done.
The Strength Training
I’ve just gotten back into adding strength workouts into my weekly training plan. It’s something I’ve been meaning to sort out, and now I have some adjustable dumbbells for home workouts I’ve found a scrap of motivation.
No but seriously, it’s something I really need to do and I’ve been slacking so badly. I’m just doing bits here and there at the moment to fill in the gaps when I’m not running. It’s a work in progress. More to come on that.
More marathon training updates and stories (both good and bad…) to come. Just thought I’d give a bit of background to start with!
