Have you heard the news? I’m doing the London Marathon this April! I’m doing it for the
Young Lives vs Cancer charity (previously Clic Sargent). If you spare a few pounds my sponsorship link is here >> https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/JonevansLondonmarathon2023
I’ve done it twice before, 9 and 11 years ago! I was a lot fitter then, had no children so had a lot more sleep, and less weight! Therefore this feels like a bigger challenge even though I’ve done it before!
In the past I’ve done a typical downloaded 16 week training plan, most of these go up to 20 miles.
When designing my plan this year I had the epiphany that I wasn’t ’20 mile fit’ when I did it last time.
I also look back and remember that doing a long run every weekend meant that I was extremely tired so often missed the shorter, but vital mid week session, and those I didn’t miss I often shortened as was gearing up to a long run again!
Therefore this time I’ve made a few changes, firstly here is my plan:
I’ve read the theory that for slower runners (ME!), training up to 3 hours is enough as the training benefit after that is vastly reduced. I can see how this is the case, when I butchered my 20 miler last time, the last 2 miles can’t have created much benefit.
Therefore I’ve moved away from mileage for part of my plan and gone to time instead, with a 3 hour maximum.
I’ve also put in 3 x 3 hour runs so that hopefully I’ll feel ‘3 hour fit’ by race day. On these longest runs, I’ve alternated long and shorter run weekends.
It’s also worth noting I’ve not put any strength training in here, but I will do some as and when I can, probably a gym class in the first half and then a more gentler strength session for the second half.
I've been posting a summary of what I actually do each week on my instagram.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the read, as mentioned if you’d like to sponsors me, here is the link again >>> https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/JonevansLondonmarathon2023
Enjoyed this blog? Check out our FREE resources to help runners here
Comments