My marathon journey begins…

 

Week One

At the beginning of December, I was delighted (as well as rather scared!) to win a place in this year’s Virgin London Marathon from my running club.

I should explain that I’ve fancied running a marathon since I started running about 9 years ago.  That was before kids, and my husband and I used to train together, going out for long runs on a Sunday and recovering by lazing around for the rest of the day, with no children’s needs to attend to. How easy we had it!! We started to train for a marathon back then, but a good way into our training I injured my foot and had to pull out of the race. Shortly after that, I got pregnant and running was rather forgotten about until about 3 years ago when I started again. I’ve had to start from scratch, but I ran the Great Midlands Fun Run in May 2009, which was 8.5 miles, so I’ve done a bit of distance. Contemplating running 26 miles 385 yards for too long right now makes me feel somewhat tremulous, so I’m taking it slowly and thoughtfully and I’m grateful for each step I’m able to run.

At the time of securing my much-coveted place we were just about to move house, so training had to take a back seat. I went out a few times over Christmas and New Year to get back into the habit, but this week, commencing 4th January, was designated ‘week 1’ of the 16-week training programme to prepare me for 25th April.

All well and good, and I was raring to go. Then came the unexpected dumping of snow on Wednesday, rendering running on the glassy roads too dangerous and left me with children at home as their schools were closed. D’oh!

Luckily, my husband’s Christmas pressie to me was a 3 month membership of the local leisure centre, which happens to be really close to our house. I’d already ‘cross-trained’ (read ‘chickened out of going out in the cold for a run’) on Tuesday by swimming in the morning, so by Thursday I really had to get back on my feet if I was going to start strong on the training front.  So I went to the gym and used the treadmills.

Well, it’s now clear to me why they’re an analogy for the tediousness of a repetitive job! It’s a very strange and not particularly thrilling experience to spend an hour on a treadmill in front of a mirror, relentlessly running towards yourself. And if you don’t want to look at your inexorably oncoming reflection, you end up looking at the display panel on the machine, which ticks the miles off agonisingly slowly. However, I managed 3.5 miles on the Thursday, plus some freeweights work, so I was pleased with myself nonetheless.

When it transpired that the ice was not budging this morning, I prepared myself and downloaded some comedy podcasts onto my iPod. That made such a difference! Listening to Radio 4’s News Quiz had me laughing out loud several times, which made other gym users look at me very oddly, but it really helped to pass the time and I racked up over 6 miles. Hooray!

I’m following a mixture of programmes – the first is the Runner’s World one designed for people who want to complete the marathon in 4.5 hours. I think that’s being slightly optimistic in my case, but it doesn’t hurt to set one’s sights high. The other programme I’m following is from marathonrookie.com. Oh, and I’m trying to add in some cross-training to get the benefit from my Chrimbo present too.

My mileage was down on both programmes for this week, but I did have very extenuating circumstances! Marathon Rookie’s plan had a total of 15 miles, and Runner’s World between 20 and 23, but I didn’t quite make 10.

It looks like a big thaw is on its way, so hopefully I’ll be able to get back to usual next week and follow my schedule. Fingers crossed!

Week Six

Oh, how time flies! The snow has gone but the cold and ice retain their frozen grip around the neck of the country. At least we can walk on the pavements safely now, and the sun even comes out to remind us of its presence once in a while! The days are getting oh-so-slowly longer and I’ve bought my first bunch of forced daffodils in the hope that their blossoming on my kitchen windowsill might portend the Spring.

In marathon terms, it’s been five weeks since my last entry – I’m now on week 6 of the programme – and, despite a panicked visit to the physio following a toe injury in week 3, I’m on track. One piece of advice the physio gave me was not to run on consecutive days, and this has had quite an effect on my schedule. I’ve gone from running 4-5 days a week to 3-4, and trying to get at least one swim or other cross-training in as well. Where possible, I run on weekdays so that it causes minimal disruption to family time (otherwise, I’d be out for a big chunk of the morning and then good for absolutely nothing for the rest of the day, which is somewhat irritating for small daughters!)

Something that I’m noticing now I’m running further and for longer (I’m up to 12 miles at the moment, taking me around 2 hours and 10 minutes), is that little physical niggles keep coming up, mostly in the feet. There’s the old plantar fasciitis from years back which occasionally decides to say hello, and a number of other little foot or knee ‘gremlins’ who like to work a bit of mischief. Adapting an NLP technique, I decided to ‘talk’ to them as they appear. Up until then, I’d seen them as something outside of me, happening to me, but now I acknowledge them as a part of me, a part of the whole. Therefore, although it might sound bonkers, ‘talking’ to them in my head and reassuring them makes them disappear or ease remarkably quickly. After all, at least part of the reason for their existence is to be a physical embodiment of my doubts and fears about the challenge of doing the marathon, so by soothing ‘them’ I’m getting rid of them and also reassuring myself. Job done!