"Recovery" week

Only 26 miles completed this week as the training plan called for a bit of a breather before it reaches its climax in a couple of weeks time.

Eight and five mile lunchtime runs at Dulwich during the week and then 13 miles in Pollok Park in Glasgow at the weekend bringing my total for the month to a very healthy 118.4 miles.


Pollok Park is a lovely place to run, with Highland cattle roaming around, good offroad paths and nice woodland and riverside scenery. And unusually for Glasgow the February weather was really nice, warmish sunshine and no wind. There were plenty of other runners and cyclists out enjoying the conditions.

I did 8 laps of a 1.6 mile circuit, feeling pretty sluggish at the beginning, probably due to the effects of the birthday dinner for my Mum the previous night, but speeded up towards the end and even managed a wee sprint up the "home" straight on the last lap.

My total for the year is now 207.43 miles, and my marathon training still seems nicely on target.

36 mile week

This week contained the highest weekly mileage in my marathon training plan - 36 miles. And I managed to complete them all - lunchtime runs of 5 and 8 miles in Dulwich on Tuesday and Thursday, 18 miles in the rain in Greenwich yesterday and another 5 in Dulwich today.

While I still have a couple of long slow runs to do: 19 miles in 2 weeks time and 20 in 4 weeks time, the weekly totals start to decline from here - a sign that I'm getting close to the end of the hard training and the start of the "taper" towards marathon day itself.

My body seems to be holding up relatively well considering the extra mileage - a few aches and pains of course but nothing which a couple of days' rest doesn't fix.

I think my main concern on race day is going to be my calves and hamstrings stiffening up. Apparently this happens to all marathon runners, even the elites, and explains the "marathon shuffle" familiar to anyone who's watched at the finish of a mass participation marathon. Over time your leg muscles tighten up making a normal stride impossible, and this is the second main reason why marathon runners slow down in the last few miles of the race (the other reason being hitting "the wall" when the body runs out of easily accesible carbs to burn and starts the less efficient process of burning fat instead).

I won't be able to avoid the stiff legs issue happening to me but I hope by doing regular stretching sessions between now and race day I might be able to postpone the problem for a few extra miles.

I've been reading this book, which I got as a birthday present (thanks Sally and Phil) and while it's aimed at more serious (and better) runners than me it contains a lot of useful hints and tips on marathon preparation. Rather than just giving a bunch of standard training plans, it explains a lot of the theory behind why you should do a mixture of long slow distance runs, tempo runs and intervals in your training, and what benefits each type of run brings. It also gives guidance on nutrition (to help postpone or hopefully eliminate "hitting the wall") and on strength and flexibility training (including a set of exercises which I plan to do regularly to reduce the risk of stiff legs towards the end of the race).

So, another good week's training brings my total for February to 92.2 miles, and for the year so far: 181.22 miles.

This week I also entered the ballot to run in the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October. Fingers crossed for that one - I've spectated at the race twice and it would be nice to run round the course, particularly since Practical Action have people running for them there every year.

Gear part 2

As far as clothing from the waist up is concerned, the main thing is, for long runs at least, to wear a technical t-shirt or long-sleeved shirt. Cotton t-shirts are fine up to a point, but on a hot day, or a wet day, or if you're running more than about 10km cotton quickly becomes wet and uncomfortable and can cause painful chafing ("joggers' nipple").

So I have quite a large collection of technical t-shirts, most of which I've either bought in sales or have acquired as part of "goody bags" at the end of races. Ron Hill, New Balance, Nike and Asics all seem pretty good.

For cold or wet weather I have one or two long sleeved technical tops - a Berghaus one and a Nike one are the ones I wear the most. For the really cold days I'll generally wear a fleece on top, and any old woolly hat and gloves.

Fortunately it looks like the really cold weather is over for this winter and hopefully I'll be running in a t-shirt again soon.

A good week's running this week - four miles at lunchtime on Wednesday, 8 miles at race pace on Thursday, and then a long slow run of 17 miles at Greenwich yesterday. I decided to have a day off today even though there was a 4 mile recovery run on my plan - my knee is a little painful and at this stage it's probably better to give it an extra day's rest. 29 miles is probably still the largest weekly mileage I've ever done and I have 36 miles on the schedule next week so I'm sure I'll benefit from the extra recovery time.

I also went for a sports massage on Thursday which was a little painful at the time but I'm sure helped with my Saturday run - thanks Charlotte, and thanks Sally for the birthday gift.

So my total for the year is now 144.56 miles.

Marathon training - half way

Today marks the end of week 9 of my 18 week marathon training programme and it's also the first week where I've completed all of the mileage in the allocated week. A four mile lunchtime run on Tuesday, a seven mile run at race pace on Wednesday, 11 miles in Fairlands Valley Park in Stevenage yesterday and then a gentle 4 mile recovery run this morning bringing my total for the week to, appropriately enough, 26 miles.

The 11 mile run was a little tougher than I'd expected - the park in Stevenage is a little hillier than I remember and I've been avoiding hills lately to give my sore knee a rest. It was also rather windy and I continued my recent bad habit of setting off too fast on my "long slow run" when I should be aiming to run around 10% slower than race pace.

Anyway, I did my 5 laps in a reasonable time and am happy to have reached halfway in my training with no major injury worries and having completed all of the distance runs successfully.

The next few weeks are the crux of the training - a 17 mile run next weekend, 18 the following weekend, then an "easy week", then 19 miles, another easy week, and then on 19th March the final long slow run of 20 miles before beginning the "taper" towards the race. At the moment I'm fairly confident but I'm reliably informed that after 15 miles is when your body starts to really complain so until I actually do those training runs I'm not going to know how I'll react.

As well as reaching halfway in my training, I also passed a landmark in my 1000 mile challenge - I've now completed the first 100 miles - 115.33 to be exact. So running-wise, everything's very much on target at this stage. Just need to up the pace a bit on the fundraising...

Why Practical Action ?

This is the third time I've set out to raise funds for Practical Action. On a previous occasion two years ago I wrote the attached post and, having read it I see no reason to change it - it's as true now as it was then.

"So, out of all the charities there are to choose from, why did I choose Practical Action ?

I suppose there are several reasons.

Firstly, while I recognise there will always be a place for short-term aid to tackle, for example, natural disasters or refugee crises caused by wars, for me it's important that we help people in developing countries in a sustainable way. Otherwise, one generation from now, or even in a year's time, we'll be back where we started, or somewhere worse. Practical Action is very much focused on the long-term, on solutions which will hopefully allow future generations to lift themselves out of poverty.

Secondly, the technology which Practical Action develops and promotes is simple and for that reason I think - more effective. It's focused on problems which affect people on a day-to-day level: cooking, getting clean water, growing food, keeping their home weatherproof. And because Practical Action works closely with communities, they have a more thorough understanding of the problems they face and can come up with practical and local solutions.

A good example of this is Practical Action's work to improve toilets in Zimbabwe, Sudan and Nepal. A solution to a problem which is common in developing countries, but tailored to individual communities, and using simple technology which is easily maintained and can be built and/or manufactured locally by local people.

Thirdly, Practical Action is all about enabling people to improve the conditions of their day-to-day lives using simple technology. For me this is the key thing. Rather than just provide technology as aid, they help people learn to manufacture the technology themselves, and to educate them about the importance of e.g. clean water and hygiene for health.

And finally, for both fundraisers and long-term donators, Practical Action is very supportive. Many charities treat everyone the same, whether you're a one-off donator, or a regular one. You just end up as another name on a mailing list, to be constantly pestered for money. Similarly when raising funds for some of the bigger-name charities, there's no individual contact - you might get a fundraising pack and a standard thankyou letter. In fact some of the larger charities are positively disinterested when you contact them with a view to fundraising.

Practical Action is different - regular donators are valued, fundraisers are treated individually, and the quality of the updates they send on their work is fantastic - every one is worth reading.

So- that's "why Practical Action?".