I started training from a base level of fitness of comfortably running 6 miles 3 times a week. I also sometimes did a longer run of 10 miles, which was a real stretch.
I started training fully in November, which was quite far in advance of the marathon which was in May. So I wasn’t under a huge a amount of pressure. For November and December I did a few short runs in the week, and generally a slightly longer one on a Saturday morning. It did take me this two months to get to grips with running different distances on different days. I’d spent the last 18 months doing the same length run time and again. I just wasn’t used to flexibility and adjusting my thinking about each run.
After I made my plan at Christmas time, I started to get a bit more confident about being flexible. So I’d try to train 3 or 4 evenings a week, and on a Saturday. I chose to try to avoid running on Sundays, as I wanted to try to always have a day off.
Weekday evenings:
1 hour gym session: exercise bike or treadmill plus a few legs and abs weights
or
8 mile road run involving various hills
plus some weeks
13 – 15 mile road run involving various hills
Weekend run:
Increasing in length each week – started off at 12 – 13 miles and increased up to 24 miles. Mostly on trails and soft ground, again involving quite a lot of hills
The problem with this plan…
This plan definitely lacked variety, and looking back through the training book again, I was only following a bit of what it suggested. A lot of this was down to lack of confidence – thinking about training is something I’ve never done before, so although I’m pleased with what I managed, it would have been better to try out more.
I managed about 6 or 7 interval training sessions in the gym, but other than running up lots of hills that were on my routes, I didn’t do any specific hill training. I could have really varied my training a lot more, and also perhaps done some swimming and core strength work like yoga.
I’m pretty sure I could have managed these things quite comfortably, I just didn’t think so at the time. The main thing I learned from this is that being brave is quite important in any kind of training plan.
