Training for Amsterdam - Marathon J

9 weeks ago
My name is Marathon J, I am a runner, I’ve not run seriously for a couple of months but I’m starting today to train for a marathon, I have 18 weeks to the race.
My name is Marathon J and I like a drink, I’ve not had a serious drink since yesterday, but I’m about to run a marathon so I’m giving up today.

I analysed several training programs eventually narrowing it down to two that I vacillated between for a while, these were the Runners World training program and the Asics training program, eventually I choose the Asics program because it allowed me to put a training program together set against a 4 hour finish time, which is my goal as it is twice my half marathon time. Some would say this is optimistic, others impossible, I call it my challenge.

8 weeks and 6 days ago
Ouch my back hurts, I booked a visit to my chiropractor.

3 weeks ago
After one hundred and fifty pounds invested in a chiropractor my back is better(ish)…... Lets start again……..
My name is Marathon J, I am a runner I’ve not run for a couple of months plus 6 weeks! But I’m starting to train for a marathon, I now have 12 weeks to train
My name is Marathon J and I like a drink, I’ve not had a drink since yesterday, the last six weeks were tough hence I did not give up, but I’m about to run a marathon so I’m giving up again.

2 weeks and 6 days ago

I reviewed my 18 week training program with a view to starting at week 12, rather than dive straight in at the Monday “week 6 run” I sensibly, very sensibly for me, thought I’d have a gentle 4 miler to break myself back into training, and then move into the Tuesday week 12 run.

So a gentle 4 miles to get me going was in fact 40 minutes of torture, it was extremely difficult, I could not understand why, at that point I realised the marathon training was going to be harder than I thought. What happened to the fitness I had during the ½ marathon, where had that gone? Seeking advice from my hero Marathon T he simply said give it two weeks and you will be fine. I was almost 1 stone heavier than when I ran the half and subsequent runs were to prove even harder. I needed to re think my strategy. The obvious thing was to go back to runners world and Ascis websites and re input the training with only 12 weeks to train. Non runners need to understand at this point is that a 12 week marathon program has 2 weeks of tapering at the end (tapering is not running much allowing your body to recover and build strength for the race) so a 12 week program is actually only 10 weeks.

The Asics website encapsulated my dilemma succinctly, “There is not enough time to meet your goals”. The Runners World site was similarly unhelpful, so I played with the Ascis site parameters, mainly because it gives you some flexibility and eventually tricked it into giving me a program in approximately the timescales I needed. Now all I had to do was train according to it’s regime.

I’m not sure this is possible!

6 days ago

During a long Saturday run, 7 miles I happened upon a baby Hedge Hog trying to cross the road I was running down, silly little fella, I picked him up, wow they are prickly, carried him to the field he was attempting to reach and hoped he did not try to cross back again. I ran on happy with a spring in my step for the next mile, safe in the knowledge I’d probably saved him from coming to a premature squashy end.