Running up that road, running up that hill

The thing about a marathon is that you really have to train for it. The first guy who ran it didn't train for it, and look what happened to him! To avoid that same fate, when I got the marathon place I turned to my good friend, the internet, and picked a plan that was encouragingly titled "Novice 1" (as opposed to "Novice 2" - I'm really not at that level yet!). It also happened to cover exactly the number of weeks left until the VLM, so I got to start immediately. The focus of this plan is to do enough (easy) miles to finish the marathon.

I modified the plan to incorporate strength training, my weekly swimming lessons (because I realised that despite thinking I was a decent swimmer, I can't even do front crawl!)  and the occasional ParkRun on Saturdays. So the basic idea was:

• Monday: Strength training session from the fabulous Julia Buckley's "Challenge XXX".
• Tuesday: Run to the pool, swimming lesson, run back home. (Collapse.)
• Wednesday: Mid-week long-ish run. Once these went over 5mi, I started to run-commute home from work.
• Thursday: Strength
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: Short run
• Sunday: Long run

 - THE PLAN* -

That was the plan anyway! (As you will have noticed, the post title implies that there might be hill training involved somewhere - there isn't because hills are hard!)

Things went well for a few weeks, I was feeling super strong and like I didn't need any rest at all. I'd swap sessions around to accommodate general life stuff and things seemed to be going well.

Until...

I first had the knee pain during the second half of a 10mi training session with Julie and a bunch of ladies including our Ron Pickering team in Hyde Park, but just I thought I'd tweaked it. It was fine during the week - until I tried to go long on the weekend. Four miles in I couldn't keep going.

Long story short, it was an IT band issue caused by tightness in the calves and quads. After two weeks of foam rolling, stretching, icing and not running very much (booh!), I hopped back onto the plan yesterday with a gentle jog to Finsbury Park, took in their ParkRun and headed back home - lots of stretching in between and 14mi covered, pain free. Happy days!

But it became clear that I need to change the plan - I was told in no uncertain terms that I was overdoing things. As you can see in the picture, I've drawn a line under it, and going forward the plan is:

• Monday: Speed work
• Tuesday: Swim
• Wednesday: Strength
• Thursday: Mid-week run
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: Long run
• Sunday: Rest

Plus the bleeping foam roller every day, and a short core routine for good measure.

Next up: The joys of ParkRun tourism and why run-commuting is not for the faint of heart.


*Note on THE PLAN: Items being crossed out either means I did them, or didn't do them, which may be confusing to some readers!