Week 5’s mantra has been “breathe” and I am pretty sure that thanks to focusing on my breathing when I am struggling on my runs, I am finally starting to see some improvements on my endurance and my speed!
Since I’ve gone back to Run Dem Crew on Tuesday evenings my training schedule has changed slightly, basically swapping Tues & Weds around, and last week my friend Fleur helped me push through the speed barrier in my head as we ran to Piccadilly Circus and back with our hardcore hares. It was very hard at times, so I tried to focus on cancelling out all thoughts and feelings, and just focus on my breathing.
The speed and the breathing kind of stuck with me all week and the next day I managed to complete my first 3 miles in under 9:45min/mile in a very long time! It was stormy and I was overheated by too many layers, but I kept with it and really focused, and somehow I managed to do it!
I accidentally sped up the following day as well (not very good at keeping a slow and steady pace without Cata!) and I miraculously powered through a super difficult run by just focusing on my breathing. It felt like my legs were going to fall off during some points but I tried to focus all my thoughts on how I filled my lungs with the cold evening air and it helped.
I ran my first double digit distance on Sunday, trying out my new marathon shoes that I bought this week. They suprisingly made me super speedy and the first 2 miles on my own I managed to run 8:45-9:00 minute miles! At the 2 mile mark I was joined by Cata and we did 8 miles together in the sunshine.
My shoes felt a bit odd at first and I lost the feeling in my right foot for about a mile. But then I rearranged the laces and it went much better from there.
I was super warm throughout most of the run and it just reaffirmed that I really need to find some sort of thin running gilet! The run overall went well and despite being super tired and having jelly legs at the end of it, I felt like I had a lot of energy left and strong legs.
I tried out some running jelly babies as well and it worked much better than the gel the previous week so Im going to try to train with those for now.
The whole thing of focusing on my breathing really helped me this week when I was struggling, so I am going try to improve that technique as it seems to help me cancel out all negative thoughts and feelings (like pain and wanting to give up) during my runs.
This week looks like it will be the last “easy week” – then it is full steam ahead until I am tapering in May!
MARATHON TRAINING WEEK 6
MON: REST – DONE
TUE: Strength training & 5 miles – No strength but ran 5.5 miles
WED: 3 miles – DONE
THU: Strength training & 3 miles – Strength done, no running
FRI: REST – Ran 3 miles
SAT: Swimming – DONE
SUN: 7 miles – DONE