Day 93 - 32 to go

An early start this morning, 6:15 to be precise, but sorry, even though it was a lovely morning I refuse to go running in Reading. So I made use of the hotel gym instead.

Did 5 miles of 1 minute splits at 9/13.5km and clean forgot that only just over a week ago that I had an injury.

Good stuff.

Similar session Thursday Friday and push up the miles on a long Sunday run.

Day 91 - 34 to go

Last week was both busy and frustrating.

A 5 mile run on Thursday which contained a series of fast and slow splits. Unfortunately I managed to program the watch wrong and  instead of having 10 repeats of 1 minutes at 5 and 7mph I got 10 repeats of 7mph followed by 10 at 5mph. The numbers average out at the same but the principle of the training is all messed up.

Saturday should have been 45 minutes in the pool, but a large family of Japanese people with children seemed hell bent on using every inch of the pool. Even after the 4th or 5th collision, they still didn't get the picture so I abandoned it.

Sunday (today) I made sure that my watch was correctly set up. I'd measured a 6 mile course with the middle 4 miles set as splits again. This time I got it right.

At the end of the 6 miles my trusty Garmin informed me that, apart from over training (I'm well aware of that) my average pace was 9:11, which quite frankly is great. Up till my injury I was calculating a 9:00minute pace on race day. I've been out for 6 weeks and i'm putting in respectable times which will improve over the next 5 weeks.

So, as long as all my parts keep working correctly the I do believe that I could try for my 9:00minute Marathon pace. That would great.

I do have to be careful though not to do too much now, but do enough to move forward.

So since last Sunday i've done a 3 a 4 a 5 and a 6 mile session with minimal issues. If by tomorrow morning I am not experiencing any twinges then I think we have recovered sufficiently. Once again - everything crossed.

Day 86 - 40 to go

Still feeling like an exploration rather than a focused training regime at the moment.

Another 4 miles done, half steady and half 30/30 sec. splits. Of course the splits were still reigned in somewhat, of course. No adverse affects at all.

Progress good!

 Keep everything crossed.

42 days and counting. New training plan in place.

Can you feel the tension, the atmosphere or is it just me and panic setting in?

I wrote a new training plan at breakfast and on paper it seems utterly achievable. I won't publish it here as quite frankly people will think i've lost the plot completely and besides how more training plans do people need to read. The basic fat is though I have a plan. The only downside is that there is no room for error or injury.

I'm sure i'm not the only one walking (running) a very narrow tightrope but i'd be interested to see other peoples takes on training  for the time remaining.

Allowing for no pain or discomfort all I need to do is head for a distance of about 3-4 miles tonight. It's a little more complicated than that as it's back to the old splits - just need to work out what splits, I think tonight will be another session of exploration of where the limits are currently.

So you can tell from the last couple of sentences that the training plan is not completely done but it's nearly done.

6 weeks today!

So there are now exactly 6 weeks to go.

I took the bull by the horns earlier and went on a test spin around the block. Very gently ( 5 hour marathon pace) I pushed on to 3 miles and didn't have any obvious issues.

Rest now till Tuesday and hope that we don't encounter any after event symptoms. I certainly know that i've been out and about as I am experiencing general achiness in my left leg.

Revised training plan needed!

So considering the lost training time over the last few weeks I really don't know where I would try and slot back into my original plan.

So come Sunday I'll start with a trial run, gentle, controlled, relaxed and try and put into practise all the usefull running tips and techniques that i've been taught over the last few weeks.

Then, I think i'll have to revisit my training plan, pull out my 3 running books and try and lift the best bits from all the plans to make a schedule to cover me through till the end of April. What are the best bits though?

With a solid plan and a healthy time window, training was always troublesome. With a small time window and no plan, how hard is this going to be?

I'll try and piece a plan together but if anyone reading this has any good suggestions on a training schedule, feel free to comment. Do observe though that I can't head out on Sunday morning and stick in a 13 miler at half marathon pace. That would be too much too soon.

43 Days to race day (that's about 6 weeks)

Clearly time is not on our side now. I better get cracking and sort myself out.

Day 72 - First test of new leg

So, away in distant parts today and not familiar with the location but was able to utilse the sports facilities at the hotel.

Loosened up and did a short easy stint on the bike with no issues.

went for a brisk walk on the treadmill with a couple of short, slow jogs thrown in for a short spell aswell. Initially there have been no adverse affects and i've certainly not done any harm.

Managed to do my customary 1 mile in the pool afterwards too. It was a little harder than usual to do this as the pool was only 11 meters long, so you can work out how many lengths that was, way over 100.

I'll pop back later today and today and do a similar test and then take stock of where we go.

Initial impressions though are positive.

Day 71 - Time to restart marathon traning

This has to be the most difficult part of this entire project. For the last 5 weeks, I was unable at the beginning, I have not done any running which is rather awkward when you're training for a running event. For the last 3 weeks though i've been putting in considerable time swimming up and down a pool. As you'll note by earlier posts, this is not something that I partucularly enjoy and would gladly go back to running. I have had to be sensible though and if I want to run this race I need to be sure that my tendon can take it.

After this mornings 1 mile swim I decided to call I a day for today but tomorrow I have every intention of giving my legs a stretch. I'm thinking that this will be a treadmill exercise and probably only mustering a brisk walk. I must be careful not to do too much and also not to do too much too soon.

Time is however not really on my side with only 8 weeks to go but looking positively at it, I was in good shape when I suffered my injury and i've hopefully maintained my fitness since.

Lets look forward with positive eyes.