It’s that time again…. avert your eyes if you’re allergic to running and graphs!
This weekend I’ll be in Edinburgh for my 2:40 mulligan after my 2:42 in London. This time the training has been limited by, well, time! Seeing as Edinburgh is just 5 weeks after London there was only time for a medium week that led into a big one of 120 miles. I bookended that big week with some racing. A 10k PB of 34:51 in a sweltering heat and a 5k PB of 17:00 on semi-knackered legs have certainly given me some confidence in my speed!
Attached is the updated picture of my training. I now have an outpost in what was the barren wasteland further out than 4:30 min kms. That nice little lump up near 2:40 race pace is due to the London attempt itself and the shorter races I followed it up with.
Even the rather detailed snapshot of 8 weeks of training doesn’t tell the whole story as, of course, one block is built on top of all that precede it. So to finish my geeking-out for today I’ve plotted my entire training distribution over an 11 month period, with each month coloured in differently.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in Edinburgh, which is looking a little warm (15-17 degrees) and a bit windy (10mph), but thankfully the wind will carry me home on the last 10k – there’s just the little matter of completing ‘operation human-shield’ on the opening 30k!
Post-race edit: So… 2:44:26… ho hum. That’s the end of my 7 marathon PB streak! Was never on for 2:40, the expected headwind on the first half meant halfway in just under 1:21 but with a tailwind on the last 10k a slight PB looked possible. By 32k that was slipping, not being able to speed up but just hold pace. A high 2:42 looked like the best I could painfully squeeze out. I tried not to become demotivated but it had set in and the result was a rather pedestrian last 7k or so to tick off another sub 2:45. It’s been ‘fun’ but the streak had to end somewhere! Enjoyed the post race beers and junk food and happy with my ever-improving batting average! And a huge congrats to Stacy Wheat for bagging her London qualifying time and a PB to boot!