MARATHON TRAINING WEEK 9: Be prepared

I kicked off week 8 with a bang and did my speediest run to date. The Sunday run had given me confidence and I was feeling good about myself and my form.

training week 8 - 1

Sadly that didn’t last very long and after a super difficult strength training session on Tuesday morning, coupled with the speedy run in the evening, my Wednesday mid-long run felt sluggish and tiring. I was generally not impressed and I even had to pause in the middle because my left knee was still feeling a bit dodgy.

training week 8 - 2

My Thursday short run was even worse and even though I wasn’t aiming on running it fast, it didn’t feel good at all. (my pissed off look says it all!)

training week 8 - 3

The Saturday swim session got cancelled due to two burst water mains that left us without running water for most of the day which was a real shame as I was looming forward to it.

training-week-8-MK-Half-before

Sunday started super early since we had a half marathon to run in Milton Keynes. It was meant to be a super sunny day so I decided to run it in shorts and a t-shirt which was a very good move!

training week 8 - MK half Sam

training week 8 - MK half Cata Orsi

The race course was meant to be relatively flat but it wasn’t…! There was a lot of small inclines all around and at mile 12.5 we had to run up a super steep hill (the sort of hill that you go up in a park to get the best view over the entire city!) to then be lured into some sort of 8 shaped loop (where you could see the finish) before we could actually cross the finish line (so in other words – A REALLY MEAN 600 METERS!).

I wanted to give up around mile 10 because the heat from the sun (and no wind) was literally cooking me and I lost the feeling in my right arm for a while. But Cata encouraged me to continue and we even ran up that devils hill before the finish without stopping!

training week 8 - 4

This race really made me worried about how Im going to cope with heat on marathon race day. I usually don’t drink during the race when I run a half marathon or shorter, but on Sunday I took water every other mile, even pouring it over my head towards the end and not even that helped!

Anybody have any tips on how to deal with the sun if you really can’t handle heat? I felt like I had energy left to run longer, but it got destroyed by the heat stroke I was more or less having…

This really was the last “easy” week and from now on it’s full steam ahead with longer weekday runs, as well as weekend runs.

MARATHON TRAINING WEEK 9

MON: REST – DONE
TUE: Strength training & 4 miles – Did 7 miles and no strength
WED: 7 miles – Did 4 miles
THU: Strength training & 3 miles – Did 3 miles and no strength
FRI: REST – DONE
SAT: Swimming – DONE
SUN: 10 miles – Did 14 miles!

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