Marathon Training Begins

As I have explained on Sunday 2 October, I will be running the London Marathon the hard way, on my own. However, the training I will need to do, is in reality no different from someone training to be part of the London, or Manchester, or Brighton or any marathon.

As anyone who read my last blog or watched my film knows a couple of weeks ago, I started out with running the equivalent of a half marathon, for only the 2nd time. Now on that day it was really hot, how hot? Well, the water in my bottle wasn’t cold after 2 hours but warm, and that isn’t nice at the best of times.

Last weekend I went out again on the same route, which starts on the flat and has some gentle climbs and downward runs for 15km, then for the last 6.1km it is mostly fairly steep hills. Sadly, unless I was running in the London marathon, I will be encountering hills, now some may call the route undulating I just call it hilly. However, I was really pleased with my run-on Saturday as it was around 10 degrees cooler, so not only did my water remain cool I was around 8 minutes faster. For my next planned run, I will be on fairly level ground as I intend to run 24km, as I need to be running 30km comfortably by the 2nd.

Now as anyone who runs will tell you, there are many things you need to consider before you undertake a marathon. These include choosing the right footwear. Now in the past I wore sketchers, as they were and are comfortable. However, Becky my PT (or mistress of pain as I call her) recommend last November I should visit Runners World, where they would analyse my running gate. Apparently, I have a generally neutral style and it was recommended I but a pair of Brooks Ghost 12. Now at the time I was aghast at the price £120.00 especially as I was paying around £40.00 for my current shoe, which lasted about 3–4 months. I swallowed hard and looked online (as we all do) & bought myself my very first pair of dedicated running shoes for £70.00. I have been amazed as around 9 months after I bought them, I now need to buy another pair, so in the end paying a bit more saved me money in the long run. If you’re interested, I went to www.startfitness.co.uk and now just waiting for the right price as they vary from £129.00 to £70.00

So the first golden rule is never skimp on something vital as your shoes, they will help you get round any course in relative comfort.

Over the coming weeks, I will describe the training routine that Becky has devised for me to follow as well as running short (10km) & long 25km plus. I will also be chatting about how I’m getting my hydration and nutrition right and clothing I need to be wearing. Plus, one of the most important things anyone running needs is to chose what they listen to.