After a tough
few weeks following the Toronto Marathon, my last marathon and a DNF, I found
myself nursing a calf injury and then some dodgy and painful Achilles problems,
my training up to Christmas would be best described as ‘sporadic’.
Allied to
this I felt demotivated and in need for some downtime. I always felt I’d bounce
back and focus on a race to get fit for, but with Toronto still fresh in my
mind I wanted to get a fresh perspective on my running and this was a period
for that.
I hope my
blogs are seen as an interesting read and no more than that. I’m aware of my
limitations as a runner, but
quite a few people have asked me when the blog will return, so for those that
are interested, here it is.
Over
Christmas I got myself out for a few runs. The pace was honest and I didn’t
seem to be terribly unfit. I was running ok, but not race fit by a long
stretch. My immediate goal became a race in January and a gradual increase in
mileage to see how the Achilles would respond. So far, so good.
My opinion on
mileage for my own training is still a bit in the balance. I trained well in
excess of 100 miles weekly for most of my London Marathon build up last year;
yet similar training for Toronto yielded the complete opposite result.
I’ve
always felt I run better off slightly less, yet always get tempted to increase it
when in the marathon training bubble. It worked for London, so I chanced some
big weeks for Toronto – and it didn’t work there.
Possibly two marathons in a
year is a bit much, I don’t know. I didn’t really rest up properly after London
and raced all summer long. By September I was a spent force.
This past
weekend I ran my first race in three months over the mud in the Chiltern League
at Slough. It was all a bit Déjà Vu as I started my racing on the corresponding
weekend last year in the Chiltern League after a long lay-off. That day I was
13th and got fit very quickly after that.
The course
was a three lapper over a flat field, firm underfoot. I had two weeks of 55 and
82 going into the race, with just one session of 2km reps around Bedford Park,
which was a bit of a shock. The race got underway and I felt ok, nothing
special. Surrounded by some young lads I was unable to go with them towards the
end of the first lap and became detached on the last lap and, after dropping
one lad, I couldn’t make inroads on the next guy up ahead.
I wound up 9th.
Afterwards I didn’t feel as if I’d been in a race but at the same time hadn’t
been able to really crank it up, a lack of sharpness. Somebody mentioned I
looked strong but visibly couldn’t go with the pace as it was quite flat, fast
and short (5.4 miles exactly). I managed just inside 5:20 pace on the mud so
that’s ok. Just pleased to get the first one done.
I ran 19
miles the next morning and during the run I decided on another crack at the
Marathon on 15th April in Rotterdam. Despite a PB last year, I feel there’s some
unfinished business over 26.2 after dropping out of Toronto.
I've decided against London for 2012 as I had
such a good race there last year I don’t want to get duped into trying to
repeat that day. As well as this, Rotterdam is a proper ‘old school’ marathon,
famous for the 1983 race between De Castella and Salazar. And with Carlos Lopes
running a world record there in 1985, aged 38, there’s plenty of reason to
believe I could run close to my best there at 37(!) Rotterdam is flat and fast,
so it’s ideal and I’ve always fancied it.
Over the coming
weeks I’m going to increase my training but am committed to training for Rotterdam
off 90 miles a week. I don’t want to get injured or stale like I did for
Toronto. I know 90 miles per week over the coming months will be fine for me,
so that’s the plan. Better to go to the start line under-trained than over-trained.
I’ve got my
race plans sorted between now and 15th April. These include a 10 mile road race
in St Albans at the close of this week, the Southern XC Championships in
Brighton the weekend after. On 19th February I’m running the Wokingham Half
Marathon, the weekend after that the National XC Championships at the home of
Cross Country (Parliament Hill). On March 11th I’ll do the Bath Half
Marathon and then focus on Rotterdam five weeks later.
I love training
at this time of year, you have a focus in spring to get you out of the door
every day through the cold and dark weeks ahead. Training for a marathon
properly whilst living an otherwise normal life makes for a busy lifestyle but
marathons are worth it when you nail one.