Week 1 of 16
The start
39.6 miles done.
I haven’t run that far in one week since 2017 when I was training for my first marathon. You see, I’m not as regular a runner as perhaps I should be.
I first started running in December 2016. Prior to that; I’m sure I ran as a child, I’ve definitely run for a bus or train, and have used a treadmill on the odd occasion over the years but I was never a runner. Although, in school I always opted to do the cross-country or 1500m races (longest distance at the time) at sports day, I had no interest outside of that. I think I just liked the idea of a challenge and pushing myself, even then. If I’d stuck at it, I’d probably be really good now.
It was my wife, Laura, that got me into running at the end of 2016. She’d taken it up to get fit and was enjoying it. Laura even joined her local running club and kept telling me that I should get involved. I had my excuses for a long time; hanging onto the last one of, “I don’t have any running shoes” as long as I could until for Christmas that year, Laura bought me a lovely pair of Brooks.
I was out of excuses and on New Years Eve 2016 I ran for the first time in years at what was my first Parkrun. I ran as fast as I could. I felt like I wanted to throw up but I kept telling myself, “You never have to do this again, just keep going so you can say you’ve done it.” I ran that 5K in 23m 10s which I was told by people was an amazing time to start running at and if I stuck with it and trained, I could do even better. I didn’t believe it at the time. I felt like I’d just given everything I had but they were right. Over time, I would go on to set a personal best of 19m 38s at that track.
This first week felt like that start again. Whilst I have done some running, it was nothing compared to what I was doing pre-October 2018. I thought I could walk out the door and run a half marathon, just like that. I was wrong. I’ve been ill, I’ve put weight on, I’ve eaten and drunk poorly, I’ve not been exercising and I’ve been sedentary over the Christmas period. I was going to need to start steady if to have a hope of eventually setting a new personal marathon record.
Day 1 · 6M Fartlek
This was a good start to the week. I felt I had good energy and the run was fun. Fartlek is Swedish; it means ‘speed play’. Run however you like basically: see a tree and sprint to it, jog around a pond, try and run back and forth across a bridge getting fast each time, whatever you want.
I was trying to do Instagram Stories and take selfies while running which was tricky. I liked the idea of documenting my training at that level but realistically I wasn’t going to keep that up. Especially in the dark winter mornings. You can imagine the success I had using an iPhone on the move in the dark. I needed a professional photographer to follow me around like the pros.
Day 2 · 3M Steady inc. 3x Hill Reps + 20mins Yoga 🧘♂️
Hills are important. Find a big one and run up and down it as many times are you want. I know my biggest weakness is running uphill so I need to make sure I include hill reps every week to get better. It turned out the yoga was tougher than the run which was good as it meant I was doing it right. I use Yoga with Adriene who is amazing and has a ton of free videos on YouTube.
Namaste 🙏
Day 3 · 10M Long Run Steady
My legs were starting to warm up. Looking back at my times it feels like I’ve added around a minute to my average pace by not running much since October. Providing I can avoid injury, I’ve got time on my side to get that pace back down and even improve on before.
Day 4 · 5M Intervals
It felt good to push for speed. Intervals are great for building pace efficiency and stamina. I do alternate miles — slow, fast, slow, fast, slow — as it’s easier to track on my watch. I timed my fast intervals for downhill sections so I had an advantage which is okay at this stage of training. Super pleased with a near-six minute mile. Felt some twinging in my right heel — but wasn’t anything to worry about.
Day 5 · 4M Steady
A steady run for a Friday as I was running Parkrun on Saturday and hoping to get close to my pre-October sub-20:00 time.
Day 6 · 5K Parkrun Race
I love Parkrun. It’s a great free event on a Saturday morning. Find out where your local one is and give it a try. The plan is to have Parkrun as my regular Saturday run during training but rotate the location.
I ran Woodhouse Moor in Leeds and came 41st in 20m 41s. I found it a tough run. I was more mentally prepared than physically. I thought I’d easily smash 20mins: not quite. I need to work on my uphill stamina.
Thanks to all the volunteers 🙏
Day 7 · 10K (Hungover) Recovery Run
This was supposed to be a near-half marathon long run to end the week but I was silly the night before. The plan was to not drink alcohol at all during training. Let’s call training plans what they are: guesses.
It’s important to adapt and do recovery runs when necessary, if you get injured, or if you drink more than you should the night before.
Next week
Week 2 of training will be a true warm up to get back to my comfortable steady pace of 8:00/miles.
Monday: 4M Steady inc. 3x Hill Reps
Tuesday: 1M Warmup + 30mins Yoga 🧘♂️
Wednesday: Half-marathon Steady Long Run
Thursday: 10M Progressive Long Run
Friday: 3M Steady inc. 3x Hill Reps
Saturday: Parkrun Race
Sunday: 10M Intervals Long Run
👉 Follow me on my journey every day on instagram
👉 Dive into the data on Strava
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.
