#Project240
I write this as I’m moving into week six of the biggest training block for me ever!
Earlier in the year coach put the thought out there that I’d be able to run a decent marathon. I squirmed at the thought at first and thought… maybe not now but soon. I then made the mistake of mentioning Jonny’s comment in our #jmcoaching “everything running” WhatsApp group, this started a torrent of “you have to do it”….. I took a few days away to have a think about whether it was something I wanted to do; I knew it had to be my choice and the right choice.
After speaking to the two bosses (the wife to be and Jonny), Lauren gave her full 100% backing as always and Jonny was more than happy if I was happy and I was. I’d made the choice, I’m in!!
The choice of marathon to run was also not a hard choice as many of the group had mentioned about running Chester and this being a good chance to run a marathon not too far from home where I could still have a normal routine in the days prior to the race – it’s the little things!
I decided to give the block of training and the marathon itself a bit of a personal purpose. This was for a couple of reasons. One I wanted to really give myself some focus on what I wanted to get out of it, I wasn’t going in half-hearted I’m going into this with the attitude of “if you’re going to do this, then do it properly”. The other being to gain some support on social media leading up to the actual race, whilst using this as a good opportunity to promote the fantastic work of the coach.
With this in mind and the target set at running a sub 2hour 40 time I used all my imaginative talent [ha] and came up with #Project240 as the way to focus my mind and highlight the plan.
At the start of the block I’d just come off a bit of a bad few weeks, I’d had a DNF at the Port Sunlight 10k whilst leading with a fascia injury in my right leg which was tough to take as I knew moving into this race I was in PB shape. I took a big down week and didn’t run for nearly a week – something I’ve later realised has helped me massively and something I think everyone can learn from.
The first few 4/5 weeks where about getting back in to the game and putting a decent base phase in. So with the usual expert planning from the coach the sessions have been a mixture of tempo running and long hill reps [getting the glutes working hard], I was happy to get some company on some of the hill sessions with Neil and Paul W joining in. These types of sessions have always worked for me and help to really get the legs in shape for the more specific work which will come later in the block. In between the sessions it’s been easy running with the weeks finishing on a Sunday with a decent long run, each week the distance increasing.
Last week saw me hit two personal milestones, the big 20 mile long run and even bigger 70 miles for the week including two really good sessions and the 20 miler my legs reacted as well as I could of hoped.
The even bigger positive was my session on the Friday night was 4 x 2 miles with the 2 mile efforts being run at around 6:00/mile pace and around goal MP. The session went without a hitch and I felt amazing, totally in control and nothing felt hard. The stats back this up as I’d asked Jonny to give me some feedback and he provided me a detailed analysis which showed I was doing the right things and learning to control my running.
I know not every week is going to be and I know not every run is going to easy, but this whole process is a learning curve and every day I’m learning more about my running and more about my body.
Now whether the sub 2:40 goal is on or not I don’t know at this stage but what I will say is I’ll be putting in nothing more than 110% effort, work hard and not give up with the hope of giving myself every chance of achieving it.
I’ll update the blog as the weeks pass by with another one set to written with ¾ weeks of training remaining.
In the meantime I’m off to the gym to work on those all-important extras you need to be a strong runner.
