28 weeks later

So this one is going to be out of chronilogical order.  I still have the Essex 20 and Colchester half marathon to write about, but with 5.5 days left until the Greater Manchester Marathon, I thought it was time for some reflection.

Regular readers of my blog may recall that I started training for this marathon a lot earlier than many marathon plans would suggest.  This seemed more and more apt as my goal time reduced.  The title of the blog is Long road to Boston.  I had figured out that my autumn 2013 marathon would be my first sub 4, and that whichever marathon I did in spring 2014 would be a London good for age time.  When I planned this all out at the start of 2013, the London good for age standard for a girl in her late 20s was a sub 3:50 marathon.  This changed after last years London Marathon to 3:45.  Having missed my autumn marathon due to family commitments, and not finding a suitable one to replace it, I could have used this years spring one to get the sub 4, or go for 3:50 according to my plan, however, with 29 weeks to go, why not aim for a real stretch?  And get that good for age place which would hopefully give me the chance to run my Boston qualifier on the London marathon course.

I followed an amalgam of plans, but what was different about this time, is a lot more strength work.  In the first few weeks, I did my own kettlebels circuits,  over the November/December period I did gym strength work as I was working toward my gym instructor qualification, in January I did insanity, and since, I have been consolidating my running with tune up races.  I feel much much stronger as a result.  I've lost about 5kg since the start of training, give or take 1kg.  Both the strength training and weightloss, together with real dedication to the quality run sessions has translated into 13 minutes off my half marathon pb in less than a year.  It's where it needs to be for my goal of sub 3:45, and indeed many race calculators suggest that half marathon time translates to a 3:37, the app on my phone even has the illusive 3:35!  I started working on a marathon pace of 8:30 in October last year, and I remember it being tough for 2 miles.  Bear in mind, that was my half marathon pace at the time.

This long build up with a final focus really works well for me.  I like the small gains along the way, but the fact they are all pointing me toward a bigger goal is even more exciting for me.

So, 28 weeks later, I feel ready, but I also feel incredibly nervous.  The reality is that a 3:45 marathon would be 33 minutes faster than my marathon pb... That's over half and hour!!!  There is a real risk, as I've always been better at the shorter distances.  However, the positive is that both in the Essex 20 and the Colchester half marathon. I managed to maintain marathon pace where I wanted to.  These are great indicators, but I can never quiet that realism that 7 miles at the end of a 20 miler is a bit different to the whole 26.2

Anyways, I just have to trust in the training, and hope you'll all send me good luck vibes!