Training for a marathon is hard. There are no short cuts to success. Unlike football, where you can dive and cheat the game as you make your way to having an opposition player sent off and an easy penalty and an undeserved win. A marathon offers no such short cuts. You either do the training or you fail. Based on this definition, Ashley Young hasn't got what it takes train for a marathon the diving, cheating little toe-rag.
I had my first attempt of running over a half marathon this last weekend as part of training for the MK marathon at the end of this month. My aim was to complete 20 miles, where I just made it to 18.5 before realising I could not go any further. Without wishing to be too hard on myself, I hadn't ran that far before and was in unknown territory. I was also knackered.
So a few bullet points, what did I learn?:
My overall pace perhaps was too fast given my fitness level and more importantly my experience of marathon running (i.e. none). According to my log I started with a mile pace pace of 9.5 min/mile for the first mile and then settled at around 11 min/mile by mile 4. By mile 15 my min/mile times started to go to granny pace where each mile took one minute more until I gave up half way through mile 19 at a pace of 16 min/mile.
I remember that at mile 13 I felt good. My previous long runs have been ok until mile 9, then have got tougher, this time that didn't happen. That's good right? Maybe it's a mental thing. I do remember though that towards the end of the run I just seemed to run out of gas, things that had felt good 10 minutes before suddenly became sore and I couldn't think about much else other than when I was going to stop.
There are still a few weekends for some more long runs to get this done. I plan a 13 mile run this weekend and another crack at the 20 mile route one week before the MK 26.2.
Could Ashley Young do this - no chance!
I had my first attempt of running over a half marathon this last weekend as part of training for the MK marathon at the end of this month. My aim was to complete 20 miles, where I just made it to 18.5 before realising I could not go any further. Without wishing to be too hard on myself, I hadn't ran that far before and was in unknown territory. I was also knackered.
So a few bullet points, what did I learn?:
- I took 380ml of liquid with me, that was not enough for a run of over 3 hours. Fool.
- I did not pace myself too well to start with, but I think I settled into a reasonable marathon target pace of 11 min/per mile from mile 4 to mile 15 before gradually (well, dramatically) slowing.
- Long roads that disappear over the horizon can be demotivating - I need to think of small targets, not the goal that doesn't seem to get any closer.
My overall pace perhaps was too fast given my fitness level and more importantly my experience of marathon running (i.e. none). According to my log I started with a mile pace pace of 9.5 min/mile for the first mile and then settled at around 11 min/mile by mile 4. By mile 15 my min/mile times started to go to granny pace where each mile took one minute more until I gave up half way through mile 19 at a pace of 16 min/mile.
I remember that at mile 13 I felt good. My previous long runs have been ok until mile 9, then have got tougher, this time that didn't happen. That's good right? Maybe it's a mental thing. I do remember though that towards the end of the run I just seemed to run out of gas, things that had felt good 10 minutes before suddenly became sore and I couldn't think about much else other than when I was going to stop.
There are still a few weekends for some more long runs to get this done. I plan a 13 mile run this weekend and another crack at the 20 mile route one week before the MK 26.2.
Could Ashley Young do this - no chance!
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