Roads to Brighton: 82 days to go

Weekly summary – days 89 – 83

MONDAY: Early Morning V-Cycle and V-Core class. Cycled to work (6 miles) – night shifts

TUESDAY: From and To work – night shifts & interval sprints on the rower in the gym ( 5 x 300 meter sprints with 3mins rest)

WEDNSEDAY: Cycled home from work. 4 mile run in the park – Tempo running pace.

THURSDAY: Circuit Training class 1 hour

FRIDAY: 5 mile easy run in lunch break

SATURDAY: 16 mile endurance run with re-fuelling practice

SUNDAY: 9 mile very slow, very easy run in Brighton as part of training day conference – route recce.

Total mileage: 35 miles running & aprox. 36 miles on the bike.

I found that doing a spin class and a core class back-to-back worked really well, to two classes combined really complement each other and turns the session into a spectacular quads, glutes and core blaster. The Thursday night circuit training class was a real find too and from now on, if I can do these classes once a week I will be able to continue to build and maintain my base, core and stability fitness.

On the running front, the important run this week was the 16 miler. Saturday not only set a new distance PB but marked the beginning of the second stage of my marathon training. My base fitness is now beyond half marathon distance. I can comfortably run at least 14 miles and can stretch a short run into 90minutes without issue. Now I need to focus on building distance in the long runs and building on my marathon pace.

This is where Sunday’s conference comes in. Experts  gave myself, and the 99 other participants, advice about dynamic stretches and core stability exercises that can be done while the kettle is boiling, as well as tips on adding marathon pace to my long runs (small segments of around 30mins), threshold training (with a definition) and continuous hills – all of which will be entering my training schedule from tomorrow onwards.

I also experimented with run-refuelling this week, I took some dates, dried mango and sweet potato –  I found that, something like four dates and a handful of dried mango every 70minutes on my long run seems to work (importantly there were no adverse intestinal emergencies). I will be testing this further over the coming weeks as well as developing my snack delivery system. I am thinking small baggies with my 70min food in it so I can pull one baggie out, consume the contents and not have to worry about portions or re-sealing – this will need some practice and development though.

Last week was my ideal ‘typical week’ of training and as I step up the gear to get marathon fit, I will be striving to have weeks like this, every week.

3 thoughts on “Roads to Brighton: 82 days to go

  1. Sounds like your training is hitting the next level, I haven’t got as far as needing fuel yet! But the 70 minute portion sounds like a good idea. What way are you storing your supplies?

    1. Well, last time it was in the pocket of my CamelBak, which wasn’t very effective as I had to remove the CB to get to them so I am thinking either a utility belt or upgrading my CB to a marathon model – which has pockets in the sholderstraps

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