That’s it, we did it!

We did it!

Pos No Name Team Chiptime Guntime
==== ==== =========================== = == =================================== ======== =======
732 1078 Jennifer Westcott F 41 Shenley Striders 4:47:21 4:49:16
733 2381 Chris Westcott M 28 Shenley Striders 4:47:21 4:49:16

It was tough, very tough! At the moment I’m thinking I don’t want to run another Marathon, but if I do I won’t run one that has laps. Mentally it was extremely hard, physically I felt ok and could have gone faster.

The first lap was mostly ok, but there were a few hills including quite a killer at about 8 miles. Seeing my parents at 7 miles was really good and made such a difference to the way I was feeling. We stopped at 6 miles then 12 for gels.

The Greenway, an old railway that had been converted into a dusty path, was ok on the first lap. I think that it was because we were only on it for a couple of miles or so.

Lap one was mostly ok and we got to the split point for the second lap ok. The second lap was entirely different though!

The hills that we had previously managed seemed steeper than they were before, it also felt like the mile markers had been placed further apart. With less people running, as most of the runners were running the half, and a lot less support from people in the village, it felt a lot tougher. There were a few people cheering on though and that felt great. Seeing my parents again at around mile 18 was really good and helped greatly.

The Greenway for the second lap was a killer! We joined it at the 20 mile marker and were on it until 25. The path looked exactly the same throughout and felt like it would never end! At best it was flat but mostly it was a very gradual incline and we had to stop every mile because it was mentally so difficult.

Getting off the path and into Stratford was great though, and minus a slight hic-cup was mostly plain sailing (well running!).  Along a road and back, then under a bridge, it was about 800 meters to the finish…

The last 70 meters or so the announcer looked up Jen’s  number and called out her name, which led her to try and sprint finish…  I wasn’t having any of it, making sure we crossed the line together!

Possibly last post before Marathon!

Well, I’ve got a half-day at work then off to Stratford-upon-Avon for a long weekend, oh and 26 miles or so on Sunday! I may post via my mobile if I can get a free or Fon wifi signal…

I’ve not been feeling too great all week, the taper has left me feeling slugish! I’ve got the skin back that I had as a teenager and I just want to curl up into a ball. I’m not really ill, just feeling rubbish.

I do have a few days to relax with my lovely wife before Sunday. It’ll be really good spending some non-running time with her.

5 miles slow

Goal:

• 5 miles slow

Outcome:

• 5.1 miles – 00:43 :12 – 7.1 mph avg

Ran this much too fast again! For a slow run I should have been running between 9 and 10 minutes miles – NOT nearer 8! It shows that I still find it hard to judge my speed when I am running alone. With Jen I can see by the way she is running if we are running too fast.

I did find it fairly tough and was struggling constantly with my breathing. This was possibly because of my pace, usually if I run first mile slow I don’t have problems like this.

12 x hills

Goal:

• 1 mile jog, 12 x hill work (walk/jog down), 1mile jog

Outcome:

• 6.18 miles – 01:04:14 – 5.77 mph avg

We ran from the Pagoda car park, at Willen Lake, up to the canal then along to Campbell back to Willen and the Pagoda for as a warm up. The jog was good, although first 1/2 mile had me gasping for breath, although this quickly subsided.

We used the path that runs adjacent to the Pagoda steps for running up. We ran as far as where the path splits left for the car park, walking back down 1/3 of the hill then jogging down the rest. On the 12th we both ran further up the hill, to the right and around the horse-shoe and back round. Our cool-down was a short jog back to the car.

It was tough and tiring, at repeat 10 my legs felt like jelly (we were pushing ourselves throughout), but managed all 12. I quite like the hill work as it is a real test of will power. Unlike long runs where you want to stop out of boredom or pain, hill and speed work has you just wanting to wimp out through tiredness.

Week 15 planning

Monday – 12 x hills

Wednesday – 5 miles slow
Thursday -1 mile jog, 3 miles brisk, 1 mile jog

Saturday -  12 miles steady

Week 14 reflection

What a bad week!!

Had a bit of a mental hurdle this week, after the 22 miler I now know that I can run a marathon and so have no will to carry on training. That’s partly why I skipped Monday – as well as spending the day in the garden getting quite warm and brown…

As for Wednesday forgetting – I have no idea what happened there!!

Thursday, after having so much time off, I had real trouble getting into my run. This is something I am a bit worried about with the final week before the Marathon, as we won’t be running much – I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

The long run proves that treadmill running causes problems with my hip. My final 6 miles were spent being very aware of it.

14 miles slow

Goal:

• 14 miles slow

Outcome:

• 14.00 miles – 02:20:04 – 5.7 mph avg

Bit of a split up run…. We ran from home for a change and towards Willen Lake… planned to run to run a circuit via Milton Keynes village, back along the canal to Great Linford then to Newport Pagnell. Jen had hip problems at Willen, so we ended up at the gym instead!

So, 4 1/2 miles to the gym, 4 miles on a treadmill, 5 1/2 miles home (went a long way round!) Jen was desperate to make it 10 miles for herself and she managed 11 (one of which was in the gym). This means I managed to cover the distance. Strangely you don’t seem to see people in running gear at the gym…

I felt very tired after running on the treadmill, the dynamics are completely different and although I set the speed to our average running speed of 6 mph (excluding breaks) I found those 4 miles the toughest physically and longest mentally.

Anyway, job done!

9 miles steady

Goal:

• 9 miles steady

Outcome:

• 10.03 miles – 01:31:24 – 6.5 mph avg

Took about 3 miles to settle into this run, but as we were pushing ourselves faster it makes it a bit harder to relax down.

I got a bad stitch at around mile 4 which went (through lots of puffing) but came back again at a couple of miles later.

From 4 miles it felt great, like everything was just right. I haven’t felt so good on a run for a long time. I felt wide awake and buzzing!

Towards the end I did tire and the last half mile fast was a real push taking us to the 9 mile mark. A gentle mile back to the car and done!

6 miles slow

Goal:

• 6 miles slow

Outcome:

• Skipped session

Missed another session!!! I just didn’t feel like running after work which I’d found quite hard going. I knew I’d be annoyed about missing it and I am!

6 x 800m fast

Goal:

• 1 mile jog, 6 x 800m (1 min recoveries), 1 mile jog

Outcome:

• Skipped session

For some reason this session just didn’t happen! After a day in the sun reading I didn’t get around to even thinking about running!!

Bad me – bad, bad me!! Oh and I also ate too much chocolate over the weekend!