Training Log Archive: Badger

Hampton Court Park/Bushy Park/Thames path. Good last really long run - progression paces felt fairly comfortable throughout, though a bit harder work towards the end. There's still a bit of residual tiredness in the legs, but this should start easing off as the taper starts properly now with 2 weeks to go - only one more run longer than 13km left to go (that's 21km next Sunday), otherwise it's just lots of fairly easy short stuff with a few harder efforts thrown in, roughly mirroring my previous successful tapers from last year. The hard work feels over now, it's just a case of holding things together over the next few weeks to get to the start line.

Bushy Park/Thames path. 2km warm up, 13km at Marathon Pace, 5km warm down. Rough repeat of last Saturday's MP run, this went much better - I managed to hold the target pace throughout, completing the 13km in 52:03, so bang on 4:00/km's. It still felt pretty hard from fairly early on, like a tough tempo effort, and before half way I felt like I was flagging and wouldn't be able to hold it, but I seemed to have more mental resolve today and was able to keep pushing through. The pace was slightly ahead of the roughly 4:04/km MP target I'm planning to set off at in London (roughly 2:52 pace), which is good as it still felt a bit too much like hard work at this stage - so hopefully slightly slower than this will help on race day. Still, very pleasing to push through this so much better than the equivalent session last weekend. Knee seems pretty much ok.

Unscheduled rest day. I'd had a bit of tweaking in the right knee in the last few runs, and I felt it slightly on and off during the day a fair bit after yesterday morning's run - felt similar to when I'd had ITB problems in the past. Decided now is not the time for taking risks, so cancelled today's planned 11km recovery run, booked a physio check up for Monday, and crossing fingers.

Home to work. Included a 3.5km stretch at MP after 15k through Battersea Park and across the river - fairly hard work but maintained the pace pretty well.

Bushy Park

Richmond Park - 3 laps of 11.6 km each in 53:46 (4:39/km pace), 51:46 (4:29/km pace) and 50:20 (4:21/km pace).

What a difference a day makes - this was a superb confidence-boosting last long run. I did this session as my last long run at 3 weeks out for both the Manchester and Abingdon marathons last year, both of which had gone really well, so felt like it would a good test. I ended up doing each lap around 6 seconds per km faster than the original plan, which interestingly is exactly what I wrote when I did this pre-Abingdon in September - I'd aimed for a similar time to that session today, but ended up over 4 minutes quicker overall than last time.

It generally felt really good throughout - no fatigue like yesterday, and the legs generally felt full of energy. The uphills were still all a bit of a struggle as they often are these days, particularly later on, but I just took them steadily and then really pushed on the downs. Very pleased with the finish - having really staggered up Broomfield Hill in a 5:03 km, the splits show I then did the final 3.7km in an average pace of 4:00/km - I wasn't aiming for MP (or monitoring it at the time), just wanted to get a decent final lap time (it was slower than hoped up to then), but a great way to finish a 21.5 mile run after the disappointment of the day before.

I took 2 gels (one at end of each lap) just to get used to them again - first time since Abingdon - I think these helped and gave me energy boosts, although I still find they upset the stomach a bit, though they've always been ok on race-day and I think generally helped. I also took some water with me for the first time on any run this year - partly to help digest the gels - plan for London is a few sips here and there but won't drink much as I've been training very comfortably without it (unless it's pretty hot).

So a great turnaround after the day before, energy back, a bit of confidence back, and now looking forward to the steady taper over the next 3 weeks.

C • Amazing 5