Global Sport Stories

The end of this week represents two weeks until I will have (hopefully) completed my first marathon. And with a period off work booked in, this was my week to hammer the miles and ramp up the training before putting the finishing touches on my preparation.

Fartleks, tempo runs and mid-range runs were all part of my plan this week, helping me to reach the total of 55km ran. Missing from this is of course a long run, which I was planning on doing to help my total miles sore. However, utilising my old trusted excuse, life gets in the way. I am learning the whole way through preparing for my first marathon. And honestly, I don’t think it will be until I’ve ran two or three marathons, having tailored my preparation for each one, before I can truly reflect and dissect what went well with my training and what could be improved. 

Feeling as though I was plateauing and slightly losing interest in training, Monday saw me take on a new type of training… Fartlek. For anyone new to this term, it translates to “speed play” in Swedish, which quite accurately describes the type of training associated with it quite well. For example, having warmed up and ran for a minute at a comfortable pace, you may choose to increase to a medium to hard pace for 30 seconds, before returning to your comfortable pace. Add into this 15 second bursts of your ‘all or nothing’ pace and you have yourself quite the workout. The beauty of a Fartlek run is in its flexibility. There are no set durations for how long you have to work at a certain effort for – this is where you need good self discipline. Or alternatively you have the Nike Running app coach in your ear similar to what I did!

I banked just over 7km on the Fartlek over a period of 35 minutes. Thus offers multiple benefits of the exercise as I am taking less time out of my day compared to a longer run, I am keeping my brain engaged to prevent boredom and the high intensity aspects are improving other aspects I need to attack my race. All in all, this set me up well for the week ahead, where achieving distance would become easier due to returning to Worcersthire and having fresh running surroundings. 

I again squashed the urge of using FlixBus’ 45 minute break to fit in a cheeky 5k in a service station car park and waited until returning home to box off a 10km run instead. This unintentionally became a bit of a tempo run due to a few factors however; the gidiness from being in my hometown and the rain. I fear I set out too fast as, as I mention, the excitement from being in new yet familiar surroundings made me forget about pacing all together. Instead I realised about 3km in: “Oh shit, I’m a little more out of breath than I should be here.”

But at this point, the rain started to fall, so I knuckled down and committed to the faster pace for the remaining 7 or so km. Interestingly, once I had come to terms with the fact that I was now on a 10km tempo run, it felt as if it got a little easier. Strava awarded me a silver medal for my second fastest time in the 10km and I went to meet some old friends pleased with the efforts I had just put in. 

The remainder of the week saw me bank 33km via middle distance runs and just under 4km on another tempo run – when I simply couldn’t face running but knew I had to get my legs spinning. Oh and I took in a game at Malvern Town Football Club, which offered a nice break from the running and is always an enjoyable occasion. 

In the end, I can’t make it out to be a very eventful week, hence not going into more detail about every individual run. I would like to end by summarising a few points though. Firstly, as the title of this piece suggests, I feel as though the volume of running has started catching up with my legs. Despite focussing a little more on recovery, via a few rest days and baths for example, my legs have maintained a sluggish and heavy feel. I hope this is the point in training, and so long as my legs are fully recovered before the marathon, I will be thankful for this period.

Secondly, I can’t begin to describe how much it has helped my training efforts to have a change of scenery. It must be said I am incredibly lucky to return home to such a beautiful part of the country, however, being able to run from my door into countless miles of pure countryside really is a treat. An emerging favorite route of a loop around the Malvern Hills provides scintillating views and the opportunity to quench your thirst at many springs along the way – no camelbak needed! 

What a place for a mini training retreat, let’s hope this time in two weeks I’ll be looking back at this point feeling as though the training had paid off!