So, things are starting to feel and look more real now. I just have these two weeks of training, then I am in Myanmar for a week of mountain biking, then when I get back I will be into the two week taper and flying out to New York 10 days after returning from Asia.

Week 18 is shortened as well as I fly out on to Yangon on the Saturday, landing Sunday. Basically, that all means I am into the last 12 days of serious run training. Then go into an extended taper of sorts. I do plan on trying to get some running done whilst in Myanmar, but the heat and humidity could well put a stop to that.

Anyway, back to week 17 & 18. Nothing much has really changed with the run plan, pretty much two quality sessions each week. A tempo / interval workout and a long run. I have made the decision to drop swim training until after the marathon now, that feels up 2 – 3 hours per week. I will scale back the bike mileage slightly (apart from the week in Myanmar), but get more quality bike sessions done, focusing more on the cardo and maintain the bike strength.

Week 17:

• Running:  42.8 Miles – 5hr 39mins
• Bike:  99.5 Miles – 4hrs 29min
• Swimming: 0 yrds – 0hrs 0min

In the week 15 & week 16 I finished off with a 17-mile long run that just felt like a battle from start to finish and I would be lying if I said that run didn’t knock my confidence.

This week I have another 17-mile long run so my aim is to get more sleep and better hydrate and see if this has a more positive impact on the long run.

Monday:

• 8 Mile Steady Paced Run @ 8:00 min/mile pace

Tuesday:

• 5-Mile Easy Paced Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

Wednesday:

• 1 Hour Medium Tempo Ride on Zwift
• Endurance Tempo Run Session:
  • 1.5 Mile Warm Up
  • 10 Min Stretching & 2 x 10 sec Strides
  • 2 Miles @ 7:30
  • 3 Miles @ 7:15
  • 3 Min @ 9:00
  • 1.5 Mile Cool Down

The aim of this session is to increase the distance running at a faster pace to get the body and mind accustomed to the harder sustained effort.

I felt really good running this session today, I haven’t felt that good running in training for a few weeks so this was nice. The 7:30 pace felt easy, the legs were just turning over and the pace just felt natural. The 7:15 miles were also good, a little more effort with the increased pace and also those 3-miles were all uphill as well.

I went into this session feeling confident, I looked at the pace and thought to myself, “that’s only 7:30 & 7:15 pace so it will be a breeze”. If you flash back 12 months to my training for the CHICAGO MARATHON 2018 my comfort zone was running at 7:30, this was my goal marathon pace and I was trying to build up to be able to run at that pace. Now, I am looking at 7:15 and thinking it’s nothing, I guess the mindset adjusts as the weeks and months go by. What was once a hard tempo run becomes tomorrow’s easy paced run. Progress!!

Thursday:

• 65 Min Hard Race Pace & Interval Ride on Zwift
• 30 Min Legs, Hips & Glutes Strength Training
• 30 Min Core Strength Training
• 10 Min Foam Roll

Friday:

• 100 Min Tempo Ride on Zwift
• 30 Min Legs, Hips & Glutes Strength Training
• 10 Min Foam Roll
• 4-Mile Easy Paced Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

Saturday:

• 65 Min Race Speed Interval Ride on Zwift
• 30 Min Core Strength Training
• 10 Min Foam Roll

Sunday:

• 30 Min Core Strength Training
• 30 Min Legs, Hips & Glutes Strength Training
• 17 Mile Long Run @ 8:00 min/mile pace

So, it was another run that was wet, windy and through flooded lanes. Same distance and route as last weeks 17 miler. Whereas last week was a struggle from start to finish and gave my confidence a bit of a knock, today felt a lot better. The first mile I clocked a 7:25 with very little effort so I decided I would go against my coaches advice of running at an easy pace to get the distance done. I changed my plan to running 4 miles @ 7:30 then take the next 4 easy and repeat. By mile 5 I changed it again to running 6 on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off. By mile 7 and still feeling good at 7:30 I thought lets just push on and run the full 17 miles at 7:30 pace.

Stark contrast to last week where I was considering running slower than 8:00 min pace.

In the end I finished the 17 miles averaging 7:25 min/mile, whilst I didn’t feel great towards the end and it was getting tough on the legs, that’s kinda the aim of running long sessions during training. To teach the body and mind to keep pushing.

 

Week 18:

• Running:  41.4 Miles – 5hr 40mins
• Bike:  18 Miles – 1hrs 0min
• Swimming: 0 yrds – 0hrs 0min

This is the final “big week” of training before New York. I say big week but in reality, it is only a big week because I have my biggest and last long run of the plan. The week is shortened to a 5 day week as I fly to Yangon on Saturday.

Monday:

• Rest Day

Tuesday:

• Speed Endurance Intervals:
  • 1.5 Mile Warm Up
  • 10 Min Stretching & 2 x 15 sec Strides
  • 4 x 1 Mile @ 6:45 min/mile pace
  • 90 Sec Recovery
  • 3 Min Recovery
  • 1.5 Mile Cool Down

Not a big or fast session today due to the long run in a few days time. Still a good run out with a few reps at half marathon pace.

Wednesday:

• 1 Hour Easy Ride on Zwift
• 5 Mile Easy Paced Run @ 9:09 min/mile Pace

Thursday:

• 20 Mile Long Run @ 8:00 min/mile pace

The last proper long run before New York, 20 miles with the aim of just running at a steady 8:00 min/mile pace and banking the miles and time on the feet. With travelling at the weekend and my daughter being off nursery with chicken pox I had to run this long run today, just 4 days after the last long run and try and squeeze it in before work.

The first 3 miles felt like a slog, the legs felt heavy. I was a little worried that this would be the pattern for the whole run but thankfully, once I had a few miles in me I warmed up and it was fine.

I try to run these long runs over a lumpy route to give a similar experience to what we will face in New York. Today’s run totalled 950ft of climbing which is about 200ft more than I recorded on my previous two runnings of the New York City Marathon and 10k shorter distance.

Pace over the first 19 miles came in at an average of 7:53. For the final mile I decided to push on a bit and see what the legs had left, somehow running the 20th mile at 6:57 min/mile. Looking back at these stats now, what does amaze me is, I ran the  TOKYO MARATHON at an average of 7:01 min/mile and felt great at the finish. Yet today, running 20 miles at 7:50 min/mile pace left me feeling battered. Obviously, this was my second long run in 4 days with no taper and less than ideal pre-run prep this week, but still, how the hell did I run 26.2 miles at 7:01 pace?!?!?!?!

Friday:

• 30 Mile Core Strength Training
• 10 Min Foam Roll
• 4 Mile Easy Paced Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

Saturday:

• Travel Day

Sunday:

• 4 Mile Easy Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

The week was the first time things haven’t fully gone to plan, which lets face it, not going to plan is one of them things you just have deal with and adapt to when training for a marathon of a number of months. Things will also go wrong or not to plan.

So this week my daugther went down with Chicken Pox which meant she couldn’t attend nursery for the week and my wife and I had to take turns having days off work to look after her.

This meant that Monday’s & Tuesday’s bike rides got cancelled and my long run moved from Friday to Thursday, making an already short week even shorter, and my Tuesday & Friday runs were run after 9pm. Not ideal, but its hardly life or death.