My Pace Or Yours

When my name came out of the hat and I won the club Virgin London Marathon spot I was so excited! Then I started to wonder how I might train for 26.2 miles, like most people I have a busy schedule and these perfect guides are almost impossible to follow. I am not saying this is how to train or that you should follow how I prepared but thought I would share my build up to my toughest challenge yet.

2013
Late 2013 I was still recovering from a 7 month knee injury and was running infrequently, September I only manged 16km, October 43km then roughly 80km in November and December, I was far from fit. I attempted a PB at Cardiff Half Marathon in September with no real training, managed a 10km in about 43 minutes then crashed and burned, I just had no strength in my legs.

2014
A new year, an almost new knee and what seems like a huge challenge, I wasn't going to make all my usual mistakes, I would stick to regular runs and really drop my pace down to get hours on my feet. I cannot tell you how important it is to be out running for longer and not worry about pace whatsoever.

January
20 Runs 142km

I stared on the 5th, Christmas food and New Years alcohol out of my system I went out for 5 to 10km runs, just took it easy, well the first run was 10km in 42 minutes so I was over doing it a little. Only managed two real long runs which was on the:

13/01 21km (1:44:44)
22/01 21km (2:02:30)

February
29 Runs 243km

This was the month where I put in the most long distance runs and even managed one track session. Again I went out through my lunch time and ran 5 to 10 km at a slower pace. My long runs were as follows:

01/02 - 22km (1:58:31)
02/02 - 32km (3:21:16)
16/02 - 35km (3:50:25)
23/02 - 21km (1:32:12)

March
25 Runs 209km

I was feeling pretty fit by this point, had not picked up any injuries and was eating well. On the 5th I ran our club first Wednesday of each month race which is 7.67km, its a tough run with hills and had 32 minutes, was a PB which showed my fitness was great.

08/03 38km (3:54:20)
12/03 14km (1:13:11)
23/03 21km (1:35:00)
31/03 13km 1:05:12

April
With less than two weeks to go I really cut down my mileage, you can expect to start feeling a but crappy at this stage of your training! One of the last runs was to go and run at race pace to get the feel for it, after 2 miles I felt heavy legged and was worn out, this is concerning when you think you have 26 miles to do in only a few days but don't panic, the hard work is done and your body is repairing itself, far too late to put any long runs in now.


So there you have it, a break down of all the miles I put in and when I did my long runs. I probably broke all the rules and ran at the wrong times but it suited me. I went out for the long distances when others were, I found it tough running alone for that length of time.

I finished the race in 3:28:44, very happy although with better conditioning could have finished in less pain.

All my activities are tracked here http://runkeeper.com/user/tyler6699/