Ironing out some problems: 11 weeks to London!

The start of my training for London marathon 2016 began with ironing out a few problems...quite literally.

I said in my post Frankfurt blog that i'd spent a lot of the training period feeling pretty fatigued and rubbish. Although I still think most of this was down to life stress, when I still didn't feel back to my usual self training in my more settled environment, I decided it was time to get my iron levels checked. Low iron is a common problem in distance runners, especially females, and I have been fairly prone to anemia throughout my running. With a lot going on, though, i'd neglected to get my levels tested for quite a while. 

I can't say I was surprised to discover that my iron levels were inadequate. Once the stress levels had reduced, I knew there had to be a reason for my sub par performances. It was quite a relief to be find out why i'd been getting slower despite hard training and why i'd been feeling unnaturally tired. So, with plenty of time to go until London I've started taking iron tablets in the hope of feeling back to my usual self. I'm making it my goal to get my iron levels checked a lot more regularly now as these things have a habit of creeping up on you.

So, although probably too soon for the iron levels to improve, I did seem to experience a bit of a placebo effect this last week. A much better week of training resulted; nearly 90 miles including two decent sessions and running the Watford Half Marathon at marathon effort as part of my twenty miler. The sessions included some intervals (some shorter sharper efforts, preceded by a ten minute tempo) and some continuous hill repetitions followed by two minute repetitions at a harder pace. I definitely felt a lot more like me by the Thursday hill session.

Downhill...too fast for the camera ;)

The Sunday long run was replaced with running the Watford Half at marathon pace, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The course was one of the hilliest i've ever done, which made for a fantastically challenging run. This did lead to marathon pace being renamed "marathon effort". I ran 78.29 for second place in a close finish, which I was satisfied with given the low iron diagnosis and having upped my mileage to nearly ninety in the week.

This coming week, i'll continue with some decent mileage and race either a cross country or park run on the Saturday. Sunday will just be an easier long run this week but i'll aim for two hours of running. My goal is to blog each week in the build up to London...