Week 7 Training For The London Marathon

Week 7 Training for the London Marathon

Just a couple of things to start with. To read the opening story about my training for the London Marathon please start here or click on the links for the previous week’s training updates. Secondly, I’d love to hear what you are training for, how it is going and any questions you may have. Please comment below.

Week 7 training for the London Marathon went very well and I hit every session. I haven’t got any real injuries to talk about and nothing niggling at the moment. Well, nothing to complain about anyway. This week consisted of 6 days of training and included 3 hard sessions. This is one of the high load weeks on my 16 week plan. I haven’t cracked the weight targets yet, but that tends to kick in a little later in the process. I would like to be a little lighter at this point, but I’m only a few pounds off. That will come.

Week 8 will be a light load week, which will go down nicely with my muscles. I’m looking forward to the physical and mental break before picking back up again in week 9.

Monday

Week 7 training for the London Marathon started with a rest day. However, it did have a 5 mile walk with Chief. It also included my morning bodyweight circuit, so it was a much needed break from running. I was coming off a 23 miler on Sunday and my legs thanked me for the day off. 

Tuesday

Tuesday had a session that was on my radar for a couple weeks. This was one of the harder sessions in the entire 16 weeks. It consisted of 2 sets of 4 reps x 1 mile with 200m active recovery. I chose to do this session on a 1 mile straight stretch of road. This was a really good decision as it broke the session up nicely in my head. I found going down and back four times challenging, but not overwhelming. I think if I was to do these on a track, the 32 laps at pace would have been a mind-suck.

My splits for each rep looked like this:

Mile 1 – 6:08
Mile 2 – 6:13
Mile 3 – 5:54
Mile 4 – 6:22
Mile 5 – 6:03
Mile 6 – 6:26
Mile 7 – 6:05
Mile 8 – 6:33

Looking at the splits it is obvious which direction the wind was blowing. And it was certainly blowing on occasion.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a 12 mile easy run. I ran with company for the first 8 miles which made the miles tick over nicely. The last four on my own were fine and the entire 12 miles were covered before I knew it. I sometimes struggle running at night under the street lights. This was not the case on this night. This, despite the rain starting to come down and the wind blowing hard on the final four.

Thursday

Thursday of week 7 training for the London Marathon was 7 miles steady.  i’ll admit, I wasn’t looking forward to these miles. The weather was grim, with rain and wind once again. However, I headed into town and got my arse out of the car. That was the hardest part. Once I had the first few steps taken, I managed the next 7 miles without any drama.

Additionally, there was another walk around Jenkin Forest with Chief earlier in the day. We are in the process of selling our house, so I take him out for a walk when we have a house viewing. This leaves the estate agent to do his work, and gives me an opportunity to stretch the legs with doggo. In total, I had 16 walking miles for the week.

Friday

Friday was the second speedy session of the week. This one, a much more manageable 5 mile tempo run. I chose to do this around the grounds of Castle Coole.  The target of 6:40/mile pace on the tempo run was only off by 1 second as I averaged 6:41. It felt hard, but that’s the thing about being in the middle of a training plan. I’m building miles and pace, and it shouldn’t feel easy. 

Saturday

Saturday morning started bright and early for Roisin and I as we ran together from the house for 8 miles. The great thing about company is the miles tick over and don’t feel too much like hard work. On this route we went to Fivemiletown and back. 

Sunday Runday

Week 7 training for the London Marathon had me running my first marathon on the plan. It won’t be the last. I ran from the house once again, into Fivemiletown and then into Enniskillen. The general direction is I run due east for 4 miles, then turn around and head west the rest of the way. When I made the turn, I was smack in the face of a head wind. I have to say, running 26.2 miles, with 17 into a headwind isn’t the most enjoyable morning. 

During parts of this run, the negative head was winning the battle with my thoughts. However, after about 10 miles, things started to turn quieter. The closer I got to the final destination, my thoughts turned to the steak and eggs and coffee I was going to devour in short time. For the second week in a row, Roisin and I met in town and headed to brunch. We were both ready for the healthy refuelling that the meal provided. 

So 26.2 miles were put to rest on Sunday. There are still some 9 runs on the plan of 20 or more miles. I normally love these long runs and hopefully the next one in 7 days is more enjoyable.

Week 7 Training for the London Marathon Metrics:

The numbers are looking pretty good. My weight is down. I like to be around 150lb’s on race day. At week 6 for my Manchester training I was nearly a stone heavier than I was this week. That bodes well for hitting my target in 10 weeks. My heart rate is still a little higher than I expect, but only marginally.  I’m sleeping well and getting plenty of water and protein. I need to add in my yoga and I’ll be feeling just that much better about London.

Upcoming Week 8 Training for the London Marathon:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 6 miles hilly
Wednesday: 6 miles easy
Thursday: 5 miles steady
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Parkrun
Sunday: 20 miles long slow distance run