Marathon Training - A Week in my Life

If i'd been writing this post a couple of years ago, it would have been very different.

My routine has changed dramatically in the last year or so.

For the first few years of my marathoning career, I worked a full time job with long hours. I didn't enjoy it and I was squeezing in my training when I could.

Although, I managed to run pretty well during this time...I wasn't happy.

I was constantly stressed out and felt like I had no time for anything apart from running and work.

After realising I didn't want to live my life that way, I made some big changes.

I moved out of London and now live with my lovely boyfriend in Northamptonshire. I work 20-25 hours a week in a job that I find fulfilling and enjoyable. My hours are flexible so I can fit them in around my training.

The best thing about this is that I can now find time for things that matter to me most; seeing my friends and family, spending time with my boyfriend, planning and cooking healthy meals and getting the sleep I need.

I feel like i'm living life instead of rushing through it.

Kudos to those people who manage to hold down a job with long hours whilst training upwards of 80 miles a week...but that life wasn't for me!

So, here's my new, improved weekly routine:

Monday

Monday tends to be two easy runs for me. This works well as it's a busy day work-wise.

I get my work done in between the two workouts with a break for lunch.

It isn't the most interesting of days but I often feel I need to keep it simple to recover from the weekend!

Tuesday


After chatting with Coach, I now do my hard sessions in the mornings.

I feel like I have so much more energy early in the day. I also find that evening sessions interfere with my sleep.

During marathon preparation, the sessions can be quite long (up to 10k-12k of faster running). These are my favourite ones :)

As I don't generally have much work Tuesdays, I follow this with a relaxing brunch with my boyfriend. This tends to be involve eggs of some kind, mushrooms and spinach - most of my favourite foods and all good for recovery!

As I work both Saturday and Sunday, I treat Tuesday like a weekend. I usually do a little more relaxing between sessions. I'm not great at sitting down so this tends to be more chilled out jobs such as housework or cooking healthy snacks.

Wednesday

Another day of two easy runs.

I do one in the morning, get work done during the day and then go to my local running club, Northampton Road Runners, in the evening.

As Wednesday is a recovery day for me, I enjoy joining in with some of the less experienced groups at the club rather than trying to speed round with the fast guys!

Thursday

Thursday, until recently, has been my second session day.

This made it pretty similar to Tuesday. As it tends to be lighter work wise, I treat it as my second weekend day.

Now I often do my second harder session on a Friday, Thursday has become a rest day or easy run day.

Moving my second hard session to Friday was something I discussed with Nick to allow me more time to recover in between. It's worked well so far.

Friday

Ahhh...rest day (up until the last month or so, anyway)!

I like to catch up on work. Part of my job is coming up with new ideas for the business so I use the extra energy from not training to be creative.

I also love inviting friends or family round for dinner so it can involve some cooking, which I also really enjoy :)

Saturday

Saturday is one of my biggest work days.

Unfortunately, it can be one of my bigger running days, too. Unavoidable...but as I enjoy my work and can do it flexibly during the day, I really can't complain.

One difficulty is when I am racing. I tend to get up early to do some work before I leave and rush back to finish it off.

Sunday

My favourite day of the week - long run day!

I absolutely love long runs.

Like Saturday, Sunday is a busy work day. However, this doesn't end up being too much of a problem as I like to get up early anyway.

I'll do some before I go out for the long run and then after some post long run relaxation, spend the afternoon catching up with the rest.

I like to plan long runs with my boyfriend, a 2:30 marathon runner. He's a bit lazy so prefers to run at my pace ;)

Due to his job as a train driver we both get discounted train travel, so we often plan stop run in different locations, which we can take a train to.

After the run we always cook a big brunch, my other favourite part of the day :)

Hope you enjoyed my little summary of my week! Until next time x

How to run the Cambridge Half Marathon

I like to do one or two half marathons in the build up to a marathon. In the next month or so, I’ll be doing just that to help me prepare.

Whilst, one of the half marathons I do will just be to test the legs and won’t involve much of a taper, I do like to make one a goal in itself.

I feel its important to make sure I chose the right half marathon for this.

Last year, I chose to do the Cambridge Half Marathon in my build up for the London Marathon.

This year, i’ll be returning to do it again.

This is mainly due to last years' experience. I was really impressed with the course and organisation and thoroughly enjoyed the event.

It’s also perfectly timed at around a month out from my goal marathon. This makes it ideal preparation.

I'd strongly recommend Cambridge, both as a main race and during a marathon build up. I'm probably not supposed to say this, having been to Oxford University, but they do have a better half marathon...

As always, i’ll be preparing for the race by tapering my training slightly the week before. I’ll have a few easier days before the race to make sure my legs are just a little fresher.

I’ll combine this with eating and sleeping well in the week beforehand. As it’s only a half, I won’t increase my carbohydrate intake too much but i’ll take care to make sure each meal and snack includes a source of carbohydrate. I’ll also eat a pasta or rice-based meal the night before.

My breakfast on the morning will be a fairly standard and easily digestible bagel or toast with peanut butter and banana.

I’ll have my usual double espresso one hour before (plenty of places to get this in Cambridge).

When I get there, I’ll do a light warm up of 1-2 miles and a few strides. Last year, the race was well organised with plenty of toilets and a secure place to keep your bags. I’ll make sure I visit these both in advance. 

There are ample places to get a decent warm up in whilst taking in the lovely city.

The race itself is a great one for a fast time. I ran my third fastest time ever, last year, despite having quite a few miles in my legs from the marathon work!

It’s always a good idea to start off slightly slower than your goal time for the first 1-2 miles but as the course is mostly flat, i’ll try to get on schedule fairly quickly.

I always try to run an even pace but with the lack of undulation this is really important here.

There are some tight twists and turns, which can slow you down a little. However, these don't last long and I found that stretching out on the flat sections to gain a little time back is useful.

There are parts where it can feel breezy on a windy day. If you are short like me, sheltering in a group of runners can be really helpful on these sections.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere around the course. I thrive off of good support en route so i’ll look forward to it this year.

The last part of the race is fast so you'll be able to take advantage of this and finish strongly if you have paced it well throughout. This was my quickest mile as you can see from my splits below.

Like most half marathons i do before a marathon, i'll likely do an extra 4-5 miles afterwards to make it into a long run for the week.

Last year, I completed this down by the river, the lovely scenery taking my mind off the fact that my legs had already raced a hard half marathon!

I'm really looking forward to doing this event again but first, I need to put in another hard four weeks of training as I am still some way off where i need to be.

I'll be aiming to update my blog each week from now until the Brighton Marathon.

Until then! x

2016: a year of learning

2016 wasn't a great year of running for me.

If I am honest, a few things I'd been doing wrong for a little while finally caught up with me. Turns out, you can follow the perfect training plan and if you aren't sleeping and resting enough it won't pay off.

2016 was, however, a very important year of running for me. I've learnt more about myself, my health and my running this year than probably any other.

The advice I have received from some amazingly knowledgeable and kind people has given me so much to work on in 2017.

Here are some of the things I've learnt:

To train more you need to recover more

I increased my mileage following my 2014 marathon PB. However, my life also got stressful, very stressed. Consequently, building up the training back-fired and I felt awful. Rather than telling my coach, I pushed on regardless, blaming myself for being weak until I hated even going out for an easy run.

In 2017,  I will: pay attention for my need to rest. 

It's okay to take a run reaaaallly easy. It's also okay to admit you are finding the training tough and it's okay skip a second run if you're really tired.

Okay sleep isn't enough

I kidded myself that because I was in bed for 8 hours, I was getting enough zzz. Newsflash...if you're waking up more than once a night and not waking up feeling rested, you're not.

In 2017, I will: continue to fix my sleep. 

This is a tough one for me but I am trying lots of things to sort out my issues with insomnia and it's going in the right direction.

Negative emotions have massive negative effects on training...and you can't just run them away

I felt stressed or anxious way too frequently this year. A lot of this was life changes, but if you are feeling down about yourself or your life situation this will translate to your running.

In 2017, I will: continue to work on staying in a place where my job, my living situation and my friends compliment my running and make me happy.

More mileage isn't always better

I got drawn into thinking that the more I ran, the better i'd get. Turns out this is true up to a point, but everyone has a limit where adding in more miles is counterproductive. If you tell your coach when you are feeling fatigued, they can help you recognise this point and rein it in. However, if like i did, you just keep on pushing, you won't get anywhere.

In 2017, I will: keep my mileage conservative at a level I know works for me as advised by my coach.

You need to be kind to yourself

Feeling tired isn't being weak. Having to ask for help isn't failing. Admitting your struggling isn't complaining. When I started to struggle in running, I also started hating on myself.

In 2017, I will: be kinder to myself. Give myself a break and a rest when I need it.

The talk below really spoke to me. Give it a go if you are guilty of being too hard on yourself.

If something isn't right, keep looking for answers


I've gotten fantastic advice and insight from many people this year: my coach, a nutritionist, a sports doctor and friends. All of it has been so useful. I finally feel like I have a plan to get me back on track, not just in running but in terms of health and feeling good.

In 2017, I will: put into place this plan :)

Here's to a great 2017!

A Question of Sleep

So, after chatting to Nick and reducing my volume training still hadn't been going the way I wanted.

My sessions were still way slower than they used to be, I felt totally flat and to be honest, I just didn't feel like training.

I felt pretty frustrated because I thought i’d fixed everything else that could be causing the decline in my performance. I thought my nutrition was pretty good. My iron levels were finally up and my living situation was much improved. My sleep wasn't great...but I didn't lie awake all night.

It was only when I talked to a sports doctor, that I realised that waking up four or five times a night wasn't normal.

I never wake up in the morning feeling rested. Throughout, the last marathon training cycle my recovery was awful. If I want to reach my potential, I need to fix this.

After doing some research, I started talking to a doctor who has a lot of experience in this area.

I already did most of the things that were recommended online; avoiding blue light after dinner, establishing a regular bedroom routine and trying to avoid caffeine after lunch.

However, my poor sleep has been a long term issue for me and more aggressive measures are needed.

The doctor suggested some blood tests, which revealed a major reason why I wasn't sleeping. I plan to go into detail about my results and what they showed in a future post. For now, just check out the graph below.

To simplify things, my cortisol levels (including night time values) were way too high. Check out this article here if interested)

I discussed my results with the doctor and she made quite a few recommendations to help with my sleep.

This involved some supplements, which I also plan to go into more detail about in a future post.

It also included some lifestyle changes. I need to reduce my stress levels further to reduce my cortisol levels. I'm working on this but having spent most of my life being pretty highly strung, it's a challenge for me.

Another major change I have begun this week is doing my harder sessions in the morning. Getting a good nights sleep after an evening session is pretty much impossible for me. Thankfully, my energy levels are miles better in the morning anyway, so this switch has been easy for me.

So, here goes the start of my plan to fix my sleep and high cortisol/ stress levels...hopefully, soon i'll be sleeping like this little one -->

Sleeping like a puppy...

How to deal with a bad run (or month of bad runs)

I’ve had times (as i’m sure my coach/ family/ significant other) can attest where I have dealt really badly with my running not going well.

I’d like to think that i’ve improved but it is definitely a work in progress.

Right now I am recovering from a stint of overtraining, which I did not deal with well to begin with…and I can’t help but wonder if i’d be further down the road to recovery if I had.

Here’s some strategies I employed:

• I cried - running has always left me a little prone to emotional outbursts. In normal life, I rarely cry… but running can turn me into a human water fountain

• I threw my toys out the pram - I am ashamed of the tantrums I have had about/ during running. Pedestrians have suffered. My phone has suffered.

• I threatened to take up fencing instead - telling everyone I am hanging up my trainers and taking up another sport. Anyone who has seen my badminton, pool, darts (insert any sport involving coordination here) will know this isn’t going to happen.

• I went out of contact - disappearing from social media, avoiding talking to my coach and running at an hour when no one is likely to see me or join me isn’t a cool strategy. No one is going to call 999 and report a missing runner. People will just be a bit p*****d off.

I think you’ll agree this isn’t a good way to deal with things.

Here's a better way to react:

• Put a limit on crying and tantrums - okay, having a minor meltdown for a short amount of time in non- judgemental company can help. Just get it over with and then move on.

• Talk to your coach - when things aren’t going well, that’s when you really need the advice.

• Talk to your friends/ other runners - they’ve been there…and they probably have cake/ wine.

• Run with people - but only nice, positive people who won’t try and initiate a race in your fragile state.

• Don’t spend all your non-running time thinking about how badly you are running - focus on your work or a home/ art project.

• Leave your garmin at home for a bit - focus on running by effort and time.

• Make sessions fun - try new routes, make it a game (Dave and I played a game of making a bet on how many dogs we’d see during a run when I was feeling particularly bad…yes, really)

We all have times where we are struggling with fatigue, slowing paces or a nagging injury. 

Sometimes, that’s beyond our control…but we can (atleast to some extent) control how we deal with it.

From Marathons to Mud

Plans can change pretty quickly; one minute I'm building up to a nice, flat road marathon. Next, i'm standing on the start line of a cross country, contemplating how I'm going to cross a ditch that can be best described as a small river.

"I'm turning round...I've changed my mind!"

If things had gone according to plan, I'd currently be tapering for Frankfurt Marathon. As it happens, nothing went to plan and instead, I am changing my racing flats for spikes and praying that I can remember how to stay on my feet in calf-deep mud.

Here's what happened; I started my marathon training feeling a little off. I decided to carry on regardless. I pushed myself through long marathon pace sessions and ran more miles than I ever had before. I turned a blind eye to the fact that my legs no longer seemed to work like they used to. I ignored the feeling that something wasn't right outside of training; I wasn't sleeping well and my sense of humor seemed to have been left on one of my long runs.

Most people would recognize this as over training. However, being me, I held on to the belief that over training was something that happened to other people. I just needed to push myself harder, surely? Did I tell my coach how I was feeling so he could adapt my training? Nope. Did I back off and get more rest? Nope. Did it work? Um, nope.

Unsurprisingly, I felt worse and worse. Marathon pace became impossible and most runs ended in tears. No, I'm not sure how I let it go on so long either. Eventually, I confessed to Nick how I felt and got some blood tests. This resulted in two weeks of just easy recovery running and the abandonment of my marathon plans.

So now I get a new aim for a few months...cross country. Lower volume and a change of scenery. I've completed two in the last couple of weeks. My first Hampshire League was great fun, though my body doesn't yet feel completely recovered from the beating I gave it. This weekend I ran a local league race, which I enjoyed...the first run I genuinely enjoyed in a little while (and there were four ditch crossings!). Lesson learnt - don't try to push through feeling terrible. Sometimes you just need to rest.

Go, WADAC girls!

If Carlsberg did running races

In over a decade of running, I’ve attended a lot of running races. I don’t remember ever being massively dissatisfied, though this may be something to do with a grudging acceptance that I’m there to run and therefore a bit of suffering is involved. Mile - long queues for toilets my dog would have turned his nose up at and having my name misspelled more times than on my Starbucks cup is all part of the experience.

That being said, I do notice when a race is especially good, and Wednesday nights’ Desborough 10k was pretty special. If I turn up to future races demanding a post race glass of rosé in a diva-esque fashion, here's why.

I’ll talk about the post-race refreshments, mostly because you couldn't talk to anyone else without them mentioning it. It wasn’t quite ‘feeding the 5000’ but over 250 runners were tucking into a delicious hog roast within 15 minutes of finishing so it wasn’t far off. Plus we had water AND wine. I have never finished a race and been asked: “red, white or rosé?” All of the finishers got a choice between a bottle of top quality wine or a medal. I wish I could say I struggled with that one...

Let’s talk about the race itself (you’d be forgiven for thinking one hadn’t actually happened with the amount of chat about the food and drink). The course was a fabulous mix of fields and closed roads. There was no shortage of friendly marshal’s and the route was so well marked even I found it impossible to go the wrong way.

The atmosphere…is it just me or, at some races, do the runners just seem like they don’t want to be there? Well, they definitely wanted to be at this one; the combination of fabulous food, a very enthusiastic race director and beautiful surroundings made this the happiest race I have ever attended. Even the grumpiest runners (You know the type…“How are you?” “Ah, my knee aches" "I was attacked by a goose yesterday”) were enjoying themselves.

I haven’t even mentioned the faultless organisation; top quality chip timing, the super efficient results service, the readily available free photographs (my worst nightmare, but everyone else enjoyed them ;) and the wonderful social media coverage. I’ll just say that if anyone wants to organise an event, take note; this is how to put on a running race.