On the 20th March we got the news that the 2020 Boston Marathon was to be postponed until 14th September. Until then I had been working hard to get myself ready to attempt to run a sub 3-hour marathon.

Then on the 24th March the UK went into lockdown. I can remember it well, I was in the garage sat on my bike doing a 1 hour easy ride on Zwift whilst watching Boris telling us that life as we know it will no longer be the same for the foreseeable future. Within an hour of the annoucement came the e-mail from the gym advising that they are closing until it is safe to reopen. There went my swim training, which truth be told, not having the opportunity to swim came as a relief, its not my favourite of activities and something I suffer through.

In the UK we have been lucky to still be allowed to leave our house for up to one hour for either a run, cycle or walk once a day. Other European coutries have impossed more severe restrictions meaning you are not allowed out at all or just with a very small radius of your home.

Currently my next races are not until September, this gave me the option of continuing with the training through to September and risk burnout or I could take a step back and kind of go back into off-season mode before kicking off training again in June.

I went with the obvious and sensible decision to take a step back during April & May.

Also, I stopped working with Purdue Performance from the end of April. This was always in the plan from when I started with them in July 2019 and should have coinsided with crossing the Boston Marathon finish line on April 20th.

It does feel like unfinished business as our goal was to get to a sub 3 hour marathon but I haven’t had the opportunity to give this a crack yet. That said, in July 2019, I was just making my come back from a grade 2 calf tear, running two 3 mile sessions per week. Charlotte and Adam guided me back to fitness, built up the weekly mileage to my highest ever levels and I have run PB’s at 5k, Parkrun, Half Marathon and Middle Distance triathlon. They have given me a great base to build on through to my next race.

So the plan now is to start 15 weeks of Boston Marathon training on 1st June, this will include racing Ironman Wales on 6th September, in what would usually be the first week of marathon taper. Training will include run and bike training as well as swimming once the pool and open water venues are opperational once again.

April and May things are pretty relaxed. I initially used the first two weeks of lockdown to let the body recover from 10 weeks of marathon training. I hadn’t quite hit those BIG weeks of training so the legs weren’t totally smashed, but I felt giving sometime to relax and recover was the right thing to do before stepping up again in June.

Also, taking a step back gave me the time to process what was going on in the world. Everything has been turned upside down. We are now homeschooling a 4yr old and trying to get her ready to start school in September. I am working from home, my wife is out of work, things have got tight financially and there is the obvious health worries.

I did spend 10 days where I was that ill I didn’t leave the house and did zero fitness activities. I am not sure what the illness was but it completely wiped me out. I had no strength or energy and the worst abdominal pain I have ever felt, for three days. Things improved over the next seven days but my heart rate was high and breathing was difficult.

Some of the symptoms of COVID-19 but not the high temperature or dry cough so I don’t believe I have had coronavirus. If it was, I got off very lightly by all accounts.

To keep things interesting, I have been doing little challenges. Things like attempting to run a 1 mile PB, running the Mow Cop Killer Mile as fast as I can, running on more challenging hilly route or running in virtual races.

In May I will bring a little more structure to the “plan” by bringing in a weekly recovery run each Monday, a tempo run on a Tuesday, Endurance bike and run off the bike on Saturday and the traditional long run on Sundays. This structure will form the backbone of my marathon / Ironman training plan from June, where I will be going solo. Planning and executing the sessions myself, holding myself accountable and trying to achieve my goal of completing the 6 world marathon majors.

I will not focus on running a time in Boston. With racing Ironman Wales and the Boston Marathon within 8 days of each other, the focus is going to be on finishing both. Running the Boston marathon a week after an Ironman will be very demanding on the body so I feel it will be important not to put too much pressure on myself.

Stay safe everyone!!!