My plan for London was to get in via a good for age (GFA) time as I had one prior my knee operation, but two months before the closing date the organizers decided to move the goal posts and my GFA time was no longer good enough. At this stage I decided I would do Boston instead (15th April). I put my name in for the London place not really thinking about the consequences of doing so, but here I am with 13 days between Boston marathon and London marathon.
Training started with just easy miles in the legs ending up with the Portsmouth Coastal marathon in December which i finished in 3.22 which was a good run considering my buildup. The target for April was a sub 3 hour marathon (accountability here we are)
I decided to follow a proper plan and decided to go with the Jack Daniels (no - not the drink!) book. This is broadly pick your own mileage but each week there would be 2 hard sessions. I picked my peak mileage of 100km (~62 miles) and started to follow the plan. The first session was 6 miles easy then 6x1km followed by another 3 miles easy so about 14 miles in total. I remember finishing this session and wondering what i had got myself into as this was the hardest "long run" I had ever done, especially in January when it was freezing cold. With a certain amount of determination I did all of the required sessions following the plan exactly until my first race of the year.
In March I did Bramley 20 with the idea of doing this at marathon pace to get an idea of fitness and mentally prepare myself for running at pace for 2 hours plus. Coming down with illness on the day of the race wasn't part of the plan. I remember getting to about 10k and feeling rubbish ,tired and generally wondering why i was running. In the end i pushed round to 17 miles before I stopped, re-grouped and jogged in. Although at the time I was disappointed not doing the full 20 miles at pace in hindsight it was still a useful run.
Training continued well until 3 weeks before Boston when I came down with tonsillitis and missed my first week of training. I didn't feel great and didn't miss training whatsoever. Perhaps this was a way of my body asking for a rest? Recovered form that and then promptly injured myself in taper week and here I am now resting as much as possible hoping I'll recover by Boston.
The plan between Boston and London? No idea, if anyone has any hints or tips for running 2 marathons within 2 weeks please let me know!
Even thought the last 2-3 weeks of training haven't been great I'm looking forward to the big city marathons with the hustle and bustle that comes with lots of support and the associated noise.
Training started with just easy miles in the legs ending up with the Portsmouth Coastal marathon in December which i finished in 3.22 which was a good run considering my buildup. The target for April was a sub 3 hour marathon (accountability here we are)
I decided to follow a proper plan and decided to go with the Jack Daniels (no - not the drink!) book. This is broadly pick your own mileage but each week there would be 2 hard sessions. I picked my peak mileage of 100km (~62 miles) and started to follow the plan. The first session was 6 miles easy then 6x1km followed by another 3 miles easy so about 14 miles in total. I remember finishing this session and wondering what i had got myself into as this was the hardest "long run" I had ever done, especially in January when it was freezing cold. With a certain amount of determination I did all of the required sessions following the plan exactly until my first race of the year.
In March I did Bramley 20 with the idea of doing this at marathon pace to get an idea of fitness and mentally prepare myself for running at pace for 2 hours plus. Coming down with illness on the day of the race wasn't part of the plan. I remember getting to about 10k and feeling rubbish ,tired and generally wondering why i was running. In the end i pushed round to 17 miles before I stopped, re-grouped and jogged in. Although at the time I was disappointed not doing the full 20 miles at pace in hindsight it was still a useful run.
Training continued well until 3 weeks before Boston when I came down with tonsillitis and missed my first week of training. I didn't feel great and didn't miss training whatsoever. Perhaps this was a way of my body asking for a rest? Recovered form that and then promptly injured myself in taper week and here I am now resting as much as possible hoping I'll recover by Boston.
The plan between Boston and London? No idea, if anyone has any hints or tips for running 2 marathons within 2 weeks please let me know!
Even thought the last 2-3 weeks of training haven't been great I'm looking forward to the big city marathons with the hustle and bustle that comes with lots of support and the associated noise.
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