Valencia Marathon - 12 Weeks to go!

Last year's Valencia Marathon resulted in a small personal best. I ran 3 hours 18 minutes and 31 seconds, it was my first time to ever run a negative split (second half faster than the first half) and my eleventh attempt at the distance. I'm definitely a slow learner!

It was very satisfying and not once did I experience any weak spots throughout the 42k. Needless to say, I was thrilled, however I left this wonderful city thinking, what if....

What if this wasn't my third marathon in eight weeks, what if I concentrated on a good diet (eat more), what if I did some strength/core work?

So here we are, twelve weeks out and my motivation is sky high. I want to run another personal best, feel strong and have a smile crossing the finish line, it doesn't sound like much, but to an experienced runner, we know what's involved! Time, commitment, patience, effort, recovery, support, to name a few.

I've made some rough sketches that are starting to form a plan. Some of which includes six days of running, keeping easy runs easy, strides, spending some time at 160 heart rate, sessions with reps of one to three kilometres at ten mile to half marathon effort, long runs that get progressively quicker throughout but slower than marathon pace, and long runs that'll include marathon race pace efforts.

I'll expand on these later.

It feels like Autumn has finally arrived, leaves on the ground turning yellow, conkers doing their best to make you roll an ankle and of course the wind and rain has arrived. Still I enjoyed the cooler temps for week 1 of 12, starting September 11th.

Monday

8 miles (13K) easy, I ran down from Palmerston Park to meet the Sky Ireland run crew, ran a few miles with them and then back to Palmerston.

Tuesday

8 miles (13k) easy, almost a replica of the day before but this time down to Stephen's Green to meet the RCSI gang.

Wednesday

7 miles (11k) and first session of the week, which included 5 miles (8k) at 160 heart rate. This session worked really well for me last year. Its purpose is to delay my heart rate drift and to reduce any possible cramping in the latter stages of a marathon.

Over time I'm hoping that there'll be parallel lines between heart rate and power/pace. Not so much in pace for the session above as it was performed on an undulating loop. You can see that power (stryd foot pod) is reducing for same heart rate effort, will be interesting to track this over the next several weeks.

Thursday

5 miles (8k) easy with RCSI team.

Friday

6 miles (10k) with 5x1k @ 6'53 mile pace (4'15km) off 60 seconds standing recovery. So why 6'53 pace, well my Marathon target is going to be 3 hours 10 minutes and for that to happen, the calculators suggest that you need to be able to run a half marathon in  under 91 minutes (6'53/4'15 pace). I wanted to test the waters and was quite pleased with how it felt.

Saturday

15 miles in total and the run was broken down into three chunks getting progressively quicker, but all still at easy pace.

7.5 miles (12k) @ 85% of goal pace, 4.5 miles (7.2k) at 90% and 3 miles (5k) @ 95%.

My reasoning for this type of long run is that I want my body to get used to the format, as my plan is to run another negative split on December 3rd. It's also fun and possibly even helps with concentration levels. My heart rate for this run, although drifting upwards remained in a very good zone for adaptations.

A couple of other things to note from the week,

I'm enjoying my new shoes, the Mizuno rebellion pro, thanks Joe and Jimmy. I have Plantar fasciitis in my right heel the last 18 months, these shoes along with the saucony endorphin speed 3 are helping me to manage the issue.

I've started eating a lot more carbs, in particular extra bowls of cereal, my energy levels have really improved. I also fuelled the long run with jellies, the equivalent of three gels (90g). They tasted nice but not sure how practical when racing and trying to chew and breath at the same time, the experiment continues.

Thrilled with week 1!