It begins

I have 24 weeks until the Brighton Marathon – that’s 6 months away (I know) but the training plan I am following is a 24 week training plan. Normally I use these plans only as a guide, but this is my first marathon – hopefully the first of many, and then some, so I am taking this very very seriously. This is the plan I will be following for the next 24 weeks.

I have been active on the race side this year and the prospect of 6 months without an event is hard to imagine – especially as we are in trail running season so there are a couple of slight modifications to the plan….

At the end of week four (man! is it only 4 weeks away) I am running in the Turbo X in Bordon, Hants – a 10 mile…. Ahh, I’ll just get the description directly off of the event hosts website:

Slightly understated, many runners have said that Turbo X is grimmer than the Grim and the Turbo Zone more Hellish than the Hell Runner.

We’ll take you beyond your comfort zone – 10-or-so miles of sand, mud, hills and bogs suitable only for 4×4’s and humans in trail shoes. Get up to your neck in water, be sucked into the quagmire that is the Turbo X Zone.

As if the other 9 miles aren’t tough enough, the Turbo X Zone Mile takes you through a new level of muck, you’ll finish wet, muddy and tired and wanting more. You’ll get chip timing for the full race and a separate time through the Turbo mile so you can compare your prowess in the sucking mud against your friends and see who the King of Filth is.
(http://www.209events.com/uk-running-events/turbo-x-the-muddy-run-bordon-hants)

So my Saturday long runs will be off-road (in preparation for Turbo) and I will be doing more than the prescribed time for cross training to build up my stamina – I wanna run this thing sub 90mins.

I am also looking into the ‘Mudman’ off-road duathalon in December – but my marathon training fits with that quite happily.

So. Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the first of many, structured, runs and after my recent 5K performance, these are the speeds I will be training at:

Easy run: 5:59min/K
Tempo run: 4:59min/K
Speed work: 4:10min/K
Long run: 5:59 – 6:45min/K
Race pace: 5:20min/K

If I train at these speeds, I should be fit to run a 3:45 marathon.