Week 4/5/6 Review

Gonna Fly Now

Week 4: 39.7 miles; Week 5: 44.1 miles; Week 6: 42.5 miles (242.3 total training miles ran so far).

I’ve been light on updates recently so I’m combining three weeks into one. Fortunately, I’ve also been light on my feet — starting to reap the rewards from those tough first few weeks of training by picking up the pace — and I reckon I’m a little lighter around the gut too.

Laura put me in touch with a guy called Garth who has ran a couple of coached sessions with me these past weeks. I hope that with Garth’s coaching, I stand a better chance of achieving my goal: running a sub-3:00 marathon.

Why have I set myself this challenge?

Considering my marathon record is 3:32.

1. I like a challenge.
2. I reckon I can actually do it. My first marathon time of 3:32 was achieved after only eight weeks of training and last year I ran a sub-1:30 half-marathon. If I can avoid injury and nothing unexpected happens, I have the will to do it.
3. This might be the last chance I have, from a health and fitness perspective, to even get close to this target. It’s unclear how close Hamish’s transplant will be; it could be years or months. The prospect of my future running ability with one kidney is unknown but I assume a sub-3:00 marathon would be out of the question. So: it’s now or never.

In the past, I’d just put one foot in front of the other as fast as I could for as long as I could but Garth has got me thinking about my upper body too, to help my overall posture and performance.

The sessions with Garth have been focussed on speed which is something I don’t discipline myself to do often enough. I ran intervals of 200 m 16 times, as fast as I could, each between 36–40 seconds (the last one was my fastest). These sessions have had me running at speeds I wouldn’t normally do, which over time will improve my ability to run faster for longer. Two days after that session, I ran my fastest ever 30K with most miles at or below target race pace.

I’ve enjoyed running with someone else as I’m usually a lone runner. It’s not quite been like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed running along the Santa Monica Beach to Gonna Fly Now but these sessions have still left me feeling on a high and I look forward to more.

I’m running the London Marathon 2019 with the Kidney Care UK charity and have already raised more than the £2,000 target in support to them. This is a cause that’s very personal to me as my four year old son has kidney disease.

I’m worked-up to donate my left kidney to him when his completely give up (in the next year or hopefully two). This is another reason why I’ve set myself such a hard goal for this marathon as it may be the last chance I get to run at full health.

If you want to make a donation, awesome. If not, that’s cool too. I’m sharing my training to make myself accountable and to inspire others to push themselves and reach their own goals.