Three weeks to go

 So... in three week's time I'll have run the Brighton marathon. It's been a date a long way in the future for so long but suddenly it seems very close.

Yesterday I did my final "long slow run" in Greenwich - 20 miles. It was really hard, much harder than two weeks previously when I did 19. I think perhaps I was a little dehydrated as I wasn't running any faster than when I did 19 but during the last 5 miles or so my heart rate really climbed and I think I'd have been struggling to complete another 10km.

The temperature was certainly warmer this weekend, so it was a good lesson to learn in advance of the big day and I'll need to remember to stop for water more often during the race.

With three weeks to go it's about time to set some targets for the race. In order, they are:

1. Get to the start line, fit to run !
2. Enjoy the experience !
3. Cross the finish line on foot - before the 6 hour sweeper truck picks me up !
4. Run the whole course (with the exception of stopping briefly a water station or two)

5. Beat the average American male marathon runner (according to Wikipedia in 2005 the average American man completed the marathon in 4 hours 32)

6. Run at an average pace of 10 minutes per mile (4 hours 22 minutes)

7. Beat 4 hours 15 minutes.

8. Beat 4 hours 9 minutes (= 9.5 minutes per mile)

Clearly I would love to beat 4 hours but I think averaging 9 minute miles is overly ambitious for my first marathon and given my level of fitness and training.

My total for March now stands at 97.43 miles and for the year, 304.86 miles.

This week the "taper" begins and while I still aim to run 4 times per week, the distances will gradually decrease up to race day.

Fundraising

As it's now only 4 weeks until the Brighton marathon it's time to ramp up my fundraising efforts.

 Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far - I really appreciate your support, especially since many of you have sponsored me in previous years. Practical Action and CLIC Sargent, like most charities, depend heavily on donations to support their work and they are very grateful for your help. In the current economic climate everyone is tightening their belts and charitable donations are one of the first items which people look to minimise, so many charities are really struggling to maintain their activities.

As well as asking my long-suffering friends and families for sponsorship, this year I am also looking to large corporations to donate. So far I've asked the chief executives of three organisations for support - Sainsbury's, United Biscuits and Marks and Spencer. I received a polite email from Sainsbury's outlining all of the charitable activities they support and saying they were unable to support me at this time - but nothing as yet from M&S or United Biscuits. I have had one anonymous donation so far though so I'll be charitable and say that perhaps this came from one of those companies.

I don't expect to have much success via this route as most companies already have specific charities they support at a corporate level and probably receive hundreds of requests from their own staff and from random people like me every year. However, I plan to carry on this approach - "if you don't ask you don't get", and I've also been asking if they have any promotional items they might consider donating as prizes for a raffle / quiz night I might organise later in the year.

This week's running consisted of a couple of lunchtime trips to Dulwich for 5 and 8 mile runs, and a 4 mile run back from the garage after I dropped my car off for its MoT, plus 12 miles in Greenwich yesterday - bringing my total for February to 64 miles and for the year to 271.5 miles. I've had a bit of a cold for the last couple of weeks so haven't been feeling 100% when I've been out running, and my knee is still giving me a bit of pain, but since after this weekend's last "long slow run" of 20 miles my training plan moves into the "taper" towards the race, that'll give my body a bit of a chance to recover.

What do people think about when they're running?

Last year I bought Huraki Murakami's book "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". In retrospect I misread the title - I was expecting to find out what he thinks about when he runs (besides being an author he's an experienced marathon and ultra-runner). But I quite enjoyed the book - much of it is essentially a diary of his experiences training and running in races, so for an amateur runner it was quite interesting - particularly his story of re-running the route of the "first marathon" by Pheidippides, much of which now follows the route of a busy Greek highway.

But I was looking for something a bit more philosophical about his reasons for running, what he got out of it, and it didn't entirely answer the question I hoped it might, i.e. what do other runners think about when they run.

Before I started running one of the reasons I didn't give it a go was because I assumed it must be really boring - unlike with cycling, the scenery passes at a very sedate pace and unless you are a top distance runner, your scope to run somewhere much different to where you are now is pretty limited.

But I've since realised that running isn't boring at all, and perhaps as my working life has become more hectic, I've come to really value those hours out running in the park or along the river. It's an opportunity to empty your mind and, particularly on long runs when there are few people around, it's possible to almost achieve a meditative state, helped by the rhythm of the running and breathing.

On shorter runs, or when running at lunchtime after a busy morning at work, my mind is generally more active, and it's a good time to try to think about and solve work problems. Somehow the action of running seems to get your mind working differently from normal.

And of course when you're running there are plenty of more immediate concerns to think about:
- Don't shut that gate don't shut it, don't shut it....aaargghhh
- Is that dog a chasing after runners ankles dog or a nice well behaved dog?
- Is that crampy feeling in my leg going to stay at it is or turn into proper cramp?
- Am I going too fast ? Am I going too slow?
- Is that kid going to run away from his father or towards him?
- I hope that crowd of pigeons stays exactly where it is
and of course, the Voices, which are always saying "Just stop, you know you want to, you've run far enough, you're tired and sore, go on stop".

A good week's running this week - a very speedy 5 miles (8:45 pace) on Tuesday lunchtime at Dulwich, 5 miles again in Crystal Palace Park on Wednesday (slower, but good hill running practice) and another 5 miles at Dulwich on Thursday lunchtime (this time running around in the opposite direction for a bit of variety). And then my long slow run at Greenwich today - 19 miles, at 10:20 pace, which is pretty good for training, and keeps my hopes of running around 10 minute mile pace on race day alive.

So, a 34 mile week, bringing my total to 241.86 miles for the year.

"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...