Way back in 1999 – a looong time ago now – I ran the London Marathon. Ever since I’ve fancied running another marathon, but I’ve never been successful in the lottery draw whenever I’ve thrown my hat into the ring.
A few weeks ago Shelli mentioned that Time To Talk – a mental health charity she works with – had a charity place for this year’s London Marathon in October, and whether I’d be interested (read here “stupid/mad” enough!), to which I obviously said a resounding yes! So, she put my name in the running (excuse the pun) for the place but, sadly another lady got in there first.
Last week it transpired that the lady could no longer do it, so here I am now with 74 days to get my fat arse into shape to “run” 26.2 miles – gulp!
First thing to sort: the training plan! Now, I can pretty confidently go out and run a 5km, 10km, or even a half marathon with little to no training (not because I’m super fit but more because I’m super stubborn and won’t give up!) but a marathon? No. This needs some proper training to try and make sure I get round the course okay. Like I said, I was considerably younger when I last ran a marathon, and back then I had trouble with one of my knees going completely at mile 23, making me limp my way to the finish line. As I said, I’m a stubborn shit!
Training
After a little research here’s the training plan I’m going to be following:
Week | Day | Date | Planned Training | Actual Training | Time (HH:MM:SS) | Total Miles |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 19/07/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 0.0 |
2 | 20/07/2021 | 3 Miles | 4 Miles | 00:46:32 | 4.0 | |
3 | 21/07/2021 | 4 Miles | 3 Miles | 00:34:06 | 7.0 | |
4 | 22/07/2021 | HT: 8 Reps @ 1 Minute | 8 Reps @ 1 Minute, 10% Incline & 9km/h | 00:19:00 | 7.0 | |
5 | 23/07/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 7.0 | |
6 | 24/07/2021 | 4 Miles | 4 Miles | 00:47:42 | 11.0 | |
7 | 25/07/2021 | 8 Miles | 8 Miles | 01:30:23 | 19.0 | |
2 | 8 | 26/07/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 19.0 |
9 | 27/07/2021 | 4 Miles | 4 Miles | 00:45:42 | 23.0 | |
10 | 28/07/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 23.0 | |
11 | 29/07/2021 | HT: 9 Reps @ 1 Minute | 4 Miles | 00:46:54 | 27.0 | |
12 | 30/07/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 27.0 | |
13 | 31/07/2021 | 4 Miles | 10 Miles | 01:48:02 | 37.0 | |
14 | 01/08/2021 | 10 Miles | 4 Miles | 00:46:55 | 41.0 | |
3 | 15 | 02/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 41.0 |
16 | 03/08/2021 | 5 Miles | 5 Miles | 00:53:29 | 46.0 | |
17 | 04/08/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 46.0 | |
18 | 05/08/2021 | HT: 10 Reps @ 1 Minute | 4 Miles | 00:41:39 | 50.0 | |
19 | 06/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | ||
20 | 07/08/2021 | 4 Miles | 4 Miles | 00:41:31 | 54.0 | |
21 | 08/08/2021 | 12 Miles | 12 Miles | 02:15:41 | 66.0 | |
4 | 22 | 09/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 66.0 |
23 | 10/08/2021 | 5 Miles | 5 Miles | 00:51:05 | 71.0 | |
24 | 11/08/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 71.0 | |
25 | 12/08/2021 | ST: 2 Intervals @ 1 Mile | 4 Miles | 00:37:05 | 75.0 | |
26 | 13/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 75.0 | |
27 | 14/08/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 75.0 | |
28 | 15/08/2021 | 14 Miles | – | – | 75.0 | |
5 | 29 | 16/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 75.0 |
30 | 17/08/2021 | 5 Miles | – | – | 75.0 | |
31 | 18/08/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 75.0 | |
32 | 19/08/2021 | ST: 3 Intervals @ 1 Mile | – | – | 75.0 | |
33 | 20/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 75.0 | |
34 | 21/08/2021 | 4 Miles | 4 Miles | 00:41:41 | 79.0 | |
35 | 22/08/2021 | 16 Miles | 16 Miles | 03:14:44 | 95.0 | |
6 | 36 | 23/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 95.0 |
37 | 24/08/2021 | 5 Miles | 5 Miles | 00:56:26 | 100.0 | |
38 | 25/08/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 100.0 | |
39 | 26/08/2021 | ST: 4 Intervals @ 1 Mile | 4 Miles | 00:43:29 | 104.0 | |
40 | 27/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 104.0 | |
41 | 28/08/2021 | 4 Miles | 4 Miles | 00:42:22 | 108.0 | |
42 | 29/08/2021 | 18 Miles | 18 Miles | 03:26:24 | 126.0 | |
7 | 43 | 30/08/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 126.0 |
44 | 31/08/2021 | 5 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
45 | 01/09/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
46 | 02/09/2021 | ST: 5 Intervals @ 1 Mile | – | – | 126.0 | |
47 | 03/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 126.0 | |
48 | 04/09/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
49 | 05/09/2021 | 20 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
8 | 50 | 06/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 126.0 |
51 | 07/09/2021 | 5 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
52 | 08/09/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
53 | 09/09/2021 | ST: 6 Intervals @ 1 Mile | – | – | 126.0 | |
54 | 10/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 126.0 | |
55 | 11/09/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
56 | 12/09/2021 | 6 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
9 | 57 | 13/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 126.0 |
58 | 14/09/2021 | 7 miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
59 | 15/09/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
60 | 16/09/2021 | ST: 6-7 Intervals @ 1 Mile | – | – | 126.0 | |
61 | 17/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 126.0 | |
62 | 18/09/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
63 | 19/09/2021 | 20 Miles | – | – | 126.0 | |
10 | 64 | 20/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 126.0 |
65 | 21/09/2021 | 5 Miles | 5 Miles | 00:54:09 | 131.0 | |
66 | 22/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 131.0 | |
67 | 23/09/2021 | 4 Miles (Easy Pace) | – | – | 131.0 | |
68 | 24/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 131.0 | |
69 | 25/09/2021 | 4 Miles | – | – | 131.0 | |
70 | 26/09/2021 | 10 Miles | – | – | 131.0 | |
11 | 71 | 27/09/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 131.0 |
72 | 28/09/2021 | 40 Minutes (Moderate Pace) | – | – | 131.0 | |
73 | 29/09/2021 | 20 Minutes (Easy Pace) | – | – | 131.0 | |
74 | 30/09/2021 | 20 Minutes (Easy Pace) | – | – | 131.0 | |
75 | 01/10/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 131.0 | |
76 | 02/10/2021 | Rest Day | – | – | 131.0 | |
77 | 03/10/2021 | Marathon! | 27.27 Miles | 05:29:15 | 158.27 |
Runs & Routes
Some of you may remember that I started a Virtual JOGLE run, which took a bit of a break due to home improvements/inaccessible treadmill/loss of enthusiasm, even though I’d managed to complete over 400 miles and nearly 50% of my planned route.
Not wanting to completely give up on that challenge after all of the effort so far, I’ll be doing my short runs on my treadmill (with the 2% incline set so that they can be used for that challenge too. I should also be able to add my speed training runs (ST in the table above) as these will be run on the treadmill as well.
I’ll aim on doing the longer Sunday runs out and about so they won’t be able to be counted towards the Virtual JOGLE run, but will really help me to get used to running off the treadmill before the 26.2 miles through the streets of London.
As my training progresses I’ll update the table above with the actual training I did.
I’ll also be adding the routes from my long runs below so that I can remember just how hard they were when I look back on this madness.