Chilling out time, nice glass of cheap wine and great music of you like EDM.
Lovely vocal trance, pure classic
Building it up a bit
In my time machine back 21 years, the golden age of hard trance
And a different path, drum and bass to the core, Black Sun Empire get in my ears
Running is a simple sport. Do easy runs after hard runs. Get some time on your feet, do longer runs and do shorter runs. Do some long runs fast and do some slow. Do some short runs fast and do some slow.
A big range of pace is what you want, building up to London my fastest run, which was a 10k race, my pace was 5:40 minute miles. My slowest run was a 5 mile recovery run at 8:30 minute miles.
My long runs varied in pace from 7:30 minute miles to 6:25 minute miles.
I did 20 races including parkrun, which I usually race, in 2019 building up to the Marathon. I raced 400m, 1 mile, 5km, 10km, half marathons and the Stamford 30k. The London Marathon will be my 21st race on my Power of 10 profile for the year.
I had a long taper which started 1 April and after I finish the marathon I will have run around 700 miles since January 1st which is around 41 miles a week.
I have not followed a plan, I have just done what I felt like doing, taking a few days off when I felt like doing so. I know I have to do my long runs, medium long runs, interval training (usually not more than 5k of efforts), but most importantly recovery runs so I am not tired for the next run.
Nutrition, eat fairly good food most of the time. I like Domino’s and McDonald’s so yes I eat some rubbish. I am happy to help the kids out with Easter eggs. I always enjoy a glass of wine every night, the cheapest wine you can get. Supplements are fairly pointless unless you have a medical reason for taking them. If something claims to boost your performance it is nonsense or it will be banned.
Younger runners recover faster so perhaps they can get away with running 7 minute mile recovery runs but I think I am in this running game for the long term, so I am not going to cause long term damage to my body for short term gains.
My training started 16 December when Carl Ryde encouraged me to do a long run, we covered 18 miles in 2 hours on a hilly course. This was my longest run at that sort of pace for a long time (6 months at least) (6:39 minute miles). I completed RED which got my miles up.
I did a lot of solo runs, club runs and group runs from Cantley Park. I pushed hard in races and pushed hard on the track.
So, my build up to London Looked like this (6 months of Garmin data):
The official 5km splits and half marathon splits are below: I ran well to about 30k and then I slowed a bit, but that always happens to me. Negative split racing is not something that works for me.
| Split | Time Of Day | Time | Diff | min/km | km/h | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5K | 10:29:43 | 00:19:22 | 19:22 | 03:53 | 15.50 | – |
| 10K | 10:49:05 | 00:38:45 | 19:23 | 03:53 | 15.48 | – |
| 15K | 11:08:41 | 00:58:21 | 19:37 | 03:56 | 15.31 | – |
| 20K | 11:28:10 | 01:17:50 | 19:30 | 03:54 | 15.40 | – |
| Half | 11:32:26 | 01:22:05 | 04:16 | 03:53 | 15.46 | – |
| 25K | 11:47:43 | 01:37:22 | 15:17 | 03:55 | 15.33 | – |
| 30K | 12:07:55 | 01:57:34 | 20:12 | 04:03 | 14.85 | – |
| 35K | 12:28:43 | 02:18:22 | 20:49 | 04:10 | 14.42 | – |
| 40K | 12:49:41 | 02:39:20 | 20:58 | 04:12 | 14.31 | – |
| Finish | 12:59:07 | 02:48:47 | 09:27 | 04:19 | 13.95 | 936 |
My target was to break 2:50 and I thought perhaps if I ran around 6:20 minute miles for as long as I could and dig in after 20 that would do it. I chatted to Carl and Caroline and some Barnsley and Ackworth runners in the minutes building up to the start. I started near the back of the Championship start. My first mile was 6:40 so the next few miles were to get the average pace up to 6:20’s and this ended up getting up to about 6:13 minute miles at half way.
That was fine and then the garmin starts to go wrong, it always does because of the tunnels and high buildings. I know I am just about running to the pace I want and the mile markers help. The last 6 miles were from around 6:30’s to 6:50’s. I was getting passed but I was also passing people, looking forward to the stats when they are published later today.
On the course I spotted fellow DAC athletes Michael Mcbride at 2 miles, Caroline Wheelhouse at 20 miles and Gary Brown at 22 miles
Standard kit – DAC Vest, Lidl shorts, Mizuno Wave Rider Shoes, Gel belt, Fenix 3. Took a gel at the start and every 30 minutes to the finish. Had a sip of water at most water stations. Decided to wear gloves.
Post race, looking at the HR Zones I was Sub Threshold to 22 miles and Super Threshold for the last 4 miles.
Great support on the course and glad all those who traveled down on the day got down ok after trains were cancelled.
Thank you to all who interacted with me on social media, it means a lot.
Thanks as always to Rose for sorting out so much for me.
Doncaster AC Runners:
| Place | Cat Place | Name | Cat | Time |
| 408 | 67 | Carl Ryde | M40 | 2:39:50 |
| 963 | 206 | Martin James | M40 | 2:48:47 |
| 1716 | 196 | Michael Mcbride | M45 | 2:56:45 |
| 4312 | 1 | Caroline wheelhouse | F60 | 3:17:08 |
| 10539 | 361 | George Laing | M55 | 3:46:13 |
| 16782 | 2199 | Gary Brown | M40 | 4:07:39 |