I've had an interesting
couple of weeks, trying to get my head around training for 2 marathons in a
week. Luckily I’ve had a couple of extra
motivators – Jantastic and the Hertfordshire Workplace Challenge to help me
out, as they both involve logging your runs/training and giving scores. I’ve got quite competitive at work, and determined
to get to the top of the company’s leader board – I’m in second place at the
moment!
Two weekends ago I did a
double long-run weekend. 18 miles on the
Saturday (mostly solo, with Parkrun in the middle of it) and then the Gade
Valley Harriers 12 mile marathon training run which is quite local to me. The 18 miler went well, and managed to keep
right on target pace. My last marathon
pace in Berlin was an average of 11.34 min miles – it would be nice to beat
that at Brighton so I’m training at around 11.30 – 11.55 min miles (depending
on the terrain/hills/mud at the moment!!) and then will do an 18-20 mile run in
March time with part of it at a faster marathon target pace.
The GVH 12 also went quite well,
although certainly not the weather!! I
planned to take this one more slowly, and knew it was quite hilly so I wanted
to use it to get used to running on tired legs than do a shorter, faster
run. The event was great – excellent organisation
and for a fiver we got a fully marshalled route with water and the much-loved jelly
baby stop at mile 9. Plus cakes, hot
drinks and use of the club house at the end!! The GVHs put on three marathon training runs open
to all once a month in the winter/spring, to time with the London Marathon
(although you don’t have to be doing a marathon to join them). Great atmosphere among runners, and I got
chatting to plenty of people also running London or other races, and I met up
with Wai Meng, Rich and Ben from Tri-Force and Parkrun. It wasn’t a great day for running
though. Very cold and pouring with rain
the whole time. I’d only worn a thin
long sleeved top and I should have taken a jacket. It wasn’t as hilly as I thought – I think
they save the most beastly hills for the 17 and 20 milers!
I was happy with my time
though of just over 2hr 23mins (no times were taken so we all went by our own
watches), although the Garmin measured slightly short of 12 miles. Still a nice 12 min miles which I thought was
not bad given the long run the day before!
I was absolutely frozen when I got back to the club house, and soaked to
the skin. I had two cups of hot tea and
a big cake but was shaking so much I was spilling the tea everywhere!! Eventually the others told me to go and warm
up as my lips were turning blue (“not to alarm you, but….!!). Being only 20 minutes’ drive away, I hadn’t
planned to bring a change of clothes, which was a bit of a mistake, but at
least I still had the long sleeved top, hoody and jacket I’d come in, so at
least I could wear something dry on my top half.
I had to put the heater on
full blast for a few minutes before I drove off, and when I got home I
immediately ran a hot bath which was lovely, as I went from being chilled to
the bone to lovely and warm in about 15 minutes. I spent a good few hours in the bath!!
Below - Hemel Today has a short story about the race series
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