Going the distance

I'm in week 5 of the Hanson 18 week marathon training schedule and it's starting to fit into place.

On the one hand there are no monster long runs to look forward to (or dread). The longest I've run so far is 10 miles and I'm only due to run 12 miles this weekend. On the other hand all the other runs during the week are longer than I have been used to in the past. No single run is less than 6 miles. It all adds a cumulative tiredness into the legs which I believe is the point of the training methodology.

Also, the interval runs which are on Tuesday are run faster than I have previously been required to. Essentially they are somewhere between 5k and 10k pace which doesn't sound too bad but being on the sixth day in a row of running they can feel very tough. Fortunately they are followed by a rest day (hoorah!). This week the intervals were 5x1km which I found very hard going indeed. I think I picked the wrong route because there was a slight incline which added to the toughness. Next week I will be running a pyramid so will need to choose a flatter route to help me maintain pace better.

Apart from the interval sessions I love the training. My foot/ankle is holding up. I do have a slight shin splint on my left leg but am hoping this will ease up as it gets stronger. I'm also looking forward to running some new routes although that gets harder and harder as time goes by. I think I must have run pretty much every road, canal and dirt path within a 5 mile radius.

I am going on holiday to Italy for the first two weeks of August. It's going to be a road trip from the south to the north. It's bound to impact my training somehow but I'll see if I can minimise as much as possible. The last road trip my wife and I went on was to the west coast of America and I still managed to fit in about 80% of my training runs including a 20 mile run in San Francisco!

The weather is much warmer at the moment which is great for morning running. At that time of day it's cool but not cold. Also there are a lot more runners about due to the weather no doubt. It will be interesting to see how many remain when the mornings get darker and the temperature drops below zero! Still, make hay while the sun shines.