4 weeks and counting.

Consistency is the key. 4 weeks and counting.

The last 2 weeks of my training has been all about putting in the miles and making sure I stay injury free. No races since the Blarney half marathon which I am well glad of as I don’t think it would have served me any benefit. Since Monday week I have put in approximately 115 miles and I am starting to feel it. I notice the spark was not in my legs today when I was running. To be expected to be honest.

What has pleased me is that I’ve made good progress in my last two trips to the track. My plan at the start of my training 12 weeks ago was to bring my 800meter repeats up to a total of 10 and to run each of them in a time under 3.10. This has been the case for the last 2 weeks so there is definitely progress on that front. I plan to do 1 maybe 2 more track sessions at most before the marathon. I think that’s enough. I have also been putting in a bit of hill work so hopefully that will build up a bit of strength.

Over the last week I have been looking at my training for the Cork marathon earlier this year and it seems like I was running 10 seconds faster in training five weeks from the marathon than I am now. The whys of this I am not sure. Maybe it’s the track sessions or maybe the hill work as I didn’t do these in my training earlier this year, so hopefully as I ease up on the training the speed will pick up again. I hope this is the case as I feel I have put in the training over the last 12 weeks to bring me up to at least the same level of fitness as I was in June. In the last 12 weeks I have 497 miles clocked up in training so I think that’s more than enough at this point. I should be around the 600 mark by the 26th of October. Anything more I think would be counter -productive.

Lastly, last Monday night I went to an AAI road running workshop in the University of Limerick. Guest speaker on the night was Thomas Chamney the Irish 800 meter runner. Interesting to listen to how the pro’s run. Anyway my point on this is one of the recommendations made was that no speed work should be included in marathon training in the final 6 weeks of your program. I didn’t know this and it’s something I will be looking at in my next program. One of the main points of the talk was that consistency in training was the only real way of improving and that the likes of injuries that effect the training are always going to be the block in potential improvements. Listen to your body and if you feel there is something wrong then stop and get it seen to. Let it linger and something bigger will affect you and more than likely set you back long term.

That’s about it for now. More of the same in the week ahead. The next event will be next Sunday Oct 4th. the Cork to Cobh 15 mile road race takes place. This is my last race before the marathon and I will be using it as a training run rather than a race. I will be targeting 7:25 per mile in this race. If I run under 7:20 then I will look at it that I can’t pace myself. Most people have told me that it’s not a good idea to race 15 miles just 3 weeks before a marathon. After this I will set my marathon target time in stone.

Anyway take care and next blog will be after the Cork to Cobh.

P.S Thanks to Fergus for the schedule template and basically most of the content. It has been great to keep my training on track. (I can now blame somebody else if it doesn’t go to plan :-) !!! )

Paudie