What's it like to train for a Marathon? Part 1...

For most UK based amateur runners (we'll ignore those crazy ultra-marathon people), The London Marathon is the absolute pinnacle event to take part in. This year nearly 600,000 people applied for fewer than 20,000 places in the ballot. The odds of getting in aren't good.

However, if you're part of a British Athletics affiliated running club in the UK, and you have more than 10 members, the club qualifies for 1 or 2 places in the London Marathon.

As a member of Queen's Park Harriers, I was the lucky recipient of one of these places. I found out towards the end of December - a great way to spoil Christmas!

As is traditional, I'm raising money for a charity - an amazing local charity called 'The Avenues Youth Project' that supports local kids with a centre for learning, play and support. They are truly inspiring.

If you want to sponsor me, you can find my page here.

But also - I thought it was a great opportunity to write about what it's like to train for your first marathon. So if you're interested, here's part one...

19th December

It’s less than a week before Christmas, and less than a week since the club drew my name from the hat to run the London Marathon.

I don’t think the enormity of either have quite sunk in yet.

For the last 6 years I’ve applied for a London Marathon place in the ballot.? And this year I finally get to run it.

I still don’t quite know how I feel about that.

Last Wednesday, my name was pulled out of the hat at the club Christmas party.

I was supposed to be in the throng to witness it, but I couldn’t make it because of a recurring stinking cold - probably caused by repetitive overtraining.

Sat on my sofa I can remember turning to my partner and saying “Ooooh, they’ll be drawing the names for the marathon places about now”.? About 10 minutes later I got a single word message from the club secretary… “Yes!!!”.

I turned to Jen again.

“Oh shit!”.

For the last few years, I’d come to terms with the fact that I was probably going to run a marathon at some point.? It’s the nature of being amongst so many marathon runners all the time.? It’s a textbook definition of peer pressure.

I guess I just didn’t think it would be in 16 weeks time!

In the 6 days since my name was pulled, I’ve had many offers of help with training plans, had a lengthy conversation with the legend of long distance running, coaching and effervescence that’s known as Gildas (one of the club coaches), and contemplated the existence of Energy Gel selection boxes.? Oh, and I’ve put together a spreadsheet that tells me how many miles I need to cover each week to hit my target.

Oh, and I went for a run - 10km at an easy pace (about 6:30 per km).

Hopefully the cold’s cleared, and I can ease myself into some distance over the next couple of months.

3rd January

Christmas and New Year are done, and I feel like I’ve started to get my head around what I’m doing.

It’s been amazing how supportive all the members of Queen's Park Harriers have been - so many chats with so many people mean that I feel much more relaxed about running a marathon.? It’s hard to put into words just how much easier the whole process feels knowing that I have the club behind me.? I know loads of other members feel the same and it shouldn’t be understated.

So I now have a plan - not a strict training plan - not Hansons (though fair play to those who do!).

The plan is to:

1. Make sure I get round
2. Try to enjoy it

The way I see it, this is my first marathon, and it may be the only time I ever get to run London.? I want to actually experience running the London Marathon!? I don’t want it to be a day of pure pain and disappointment.

Or, to put it another way - whatever I run, it’ll be a PB…

So, despite the little voice in my head saying “train well and you can probably get sub 4:00, I’ve set myself the following targets:

• Bronze: Finish
• Silver: Under 5 hours
• Gold: Under 4 hours 30 minutes

And, if I’m honest, the only reason I have any times, is (as Gildas’s pointed out) so I make sure I don’t set out too fast!

In terms of training plan - each week will be a core of

• An interval session at the track. I only live 600m from the track gate, so I never get that much of a warm-up, so I’m going to take a round-about route to try to get in 3 to 5km before the start - see how that feels and maybe increase it as I go through the training.

• A long slow run - with a low heart rate. I was already at half marathon distance, but kept on getting a massive cold whenever I went straight back to two hours of running in a 40 to 50km week, so I’m going to ease in more gently.I’ve started at around 10 to 12km of running, and will increase that by about 20% every 2 weeks in order to get up to distance.The plan is to avoid running for more than 3 hours at any time.

• A shorter / faster run. Running for around an hour, doing one of the following: 10km pace for intervals of between 1 and 3kms at a time, with easy pace recoveries. Steady marathon pace for the whole duration

Then, going on feel, I’ll fit in recovery runs (5 to 10km at a really easy pace) and some leg strength training.

Part of the leg strength work will include using a balance board at a standing desk while I’m working.? Let’s see how that goes.

So that’s the plan - nothing could possibly get in the way of it.

Oh, except I’m going snowboarding in about a week and a half…

27th January

I survived the Snowboarding trip.? Despite trying my best to do myself damage, I managed to make it back with neither COVID nor any broken bones.

Having taken a full week off without running, I bought that maybe I'd be back with loads of energy and bounce.

Nope.

It's been a tough week.? Partly trying not to run too much, or too fast - partly the slow increase in miles.

I know from all the advice I've been given that getting back after a break you need to lead in gently - I've heard it described it is a “reverse taper”, so this week has been a slow build up.

Today though, was a fairly big one, even though it's been slow.? Gladstone Parkrun (local, hilly) in the morning, then 15km of zone 2 running in the afternoon - a total of 20km for the day and 50km for the week.

It wasn't too hard, but the legs are a bit tired, and I still admit that the idea of 42.2km is still really daunting.

But there's still nearly 3 months of training between now and then.? Just got to trust in the training!

Next week it's Watford Half.? This is the course where I managed my Half Marathon Personal Best last year - 1:52:52 - so it'll be strange running it at a much slower pace - but this is where the discipline is really important.? It's a training run.? Pace is key.? So, 6 minute kilometers is the target…