Marathon Training Continued....

GETTING DOWN WITH THE TRAINING

Well Marathon training has well and truly started, I've been pounding the pavements with Run Brighton on Sundays, carrying on with the runs with my running club on Thursdays and doing my regular Friday early morning runs in Stanmer Park. Friday is a really early morning session, my friend Fiona picks me up at 6.30am, Stanmer Park at 6.45am and do a wonderful beautiful 5 mile trail run. For those of you who haven't been to Stanmer Park before you really need to go and see it, It's so beautiful and is one of my favourite places to run. When we do the run on Fridays, it's a little dark starting out but it soon lightens up and it's wonderful to see the early morning sun coming up. Highly recommended :) I much prefer trail running, road running is ok but I find it a little boring, nothing better than trail running, getting out into the countryside, so beautiful.

As well as the running, I'm also doing regular bootcamp sessions in the week in order to work on strength and conditioning and core, which is so important in marathon training. I've also been doing some training called Kenyan Hills, which is a delight. It's very tough but lots of fun. Hill running is so important in marathon training as it builds up endurance and that is what you will need at the 20 miles stage, when you want to give up with only 6 miles to go - this is what will take you over the finish line. I have been doing the Kenyan Hills up Preston Drove, you simply run up and down a hill, not all the way to the top, just some of it, run up and down in sets, interval style, so I started doing 4 sets of 5 mins with 90 seconds recovery which is still light jogging. We've now stepped it up to 5 sets of 5 which is great but obviously tougher. I'm hoping to step it up again to 4 sets of 6 minutes.

The training in the cold wet weather has been going ok, quite pleased with myself as anyone who knows me knows that I hate the cold and can't stand the wind.  I much prefer the rain, running in the rain is great, always makes me feel alive, as if I'm taking on the elements and if it's raining, it's usually a bit warmer.

For the long runs on Sundays with 'Run Brighton', I now have to get up at 6.00am which is a bit of a killer! I don't mind getting up in the week for work that early or for early morning bootcamps but I'm finding it a bit tough on Sundays.  What's particularly worse is the fact that I have to eat porridge so early, around 6.20-6.30am which really isn't particularly appealing. I don't know about you but I can't eat as soon as I'm awake, I usually give myself about an hour before I eat and then eat breakfast at work. If like me you hate eating straight away then you need to plan ahead as it's never a good idea do a run more than 5 miles with nothing in your system! To be honest, the running is ok so far, it's the timings of getting up so early, forcing porridge down your face so early and getting all the timings right, that's the hard bit. I think I need to play about with it all and try different things over the next few weeks. A friend from the running club said it's a good idea to eat quite early on a Saturday eve so from now on, I'm going to try and eat at 7.30pm and eat pasta to give me energy for the next day. I think I should try eating a smaller bowl of porridge on Sunday mornings as well, that might help!

Well that's it for today - if like me you're still training through this weather then you'll probably look like I do in the photo with all the wind and the rain but keep going! Get those timings right and fuel yourself well so you stay well throughout your training. 

See you next time, 
Leonie