Marathon Training. Round 2.

It’s been seven weeks since the London Marathon.

I’m already into week two of training for the Sydney Marathon in september and I’m not really sure how I feel about doing it all again.

The weeks between training plans have been lovingly filled with nice gentle easy runs instead of gruelling training runs to areas of Sydney I normally wouldn’t drive to and it has reminded me yet again why I love running.

I’ve also been doing a bit of Crossfit training which although the sole purpose of that is strengthening so I can run faster, I’m actually starting to really enjoy it and I’m noticing the difference in my running already. It’s incredibly intense and to be honest isn’t something I could fall desperately in love with like I have running, but my brilliant training partner and I are going to include it as part of our training program for the next 16 weeks.

The other thing about marathon training is that it gives you a false sense of guide on what you can eat. In the weeks leading up to the London Marathon (VLM) I was burning so many calories that I could pretty much eat what I wanted, but the problem with that is once race day is over you’re stuck with an appetite memory that is used to getting what it wants. It’s hard turning that off again!

I’m doing things differently this time around. My main goal of the VLM was to finish without dying. I had no idea what to expect as it was my first marathon so I really wasn’t aware exactly how far my training would get me on race day, if that makes sense.

Turns out it wasn’t quite enough to get me to the finish line feeling strong. Nothing prepared me for that wall people speak of at around 33km. I wanted to die and I swore I’d never run another marathon as long as I lived. Clearly I have a fishbowl memory because here I am again preparing for round two.

I’m still proud of my time in London and I really did my best, but this time around I am training smarter and will take my shorter runs more seriously. I’ll never break my at least 2 days rest per week rule even if that means running and doing cross fit on the same day. The less is more approach got me to London without an injury so I’m doing that again but this time my midweek runs will all count. Every last kilometre of them.

I’m hungry for a quicker time and I want a race where I can spring over that bastard wall when it appears.

Today I did a hill repeats session. 1.6km up a steady incline then back again and I did that four times. I picked a hill that unfortunately takes me along the Pacific Highway near where I live, so not only do I suck in carbon monoxide whilst I’m keeping fit but I look like a weirdo running the same 1.6km stretch eight times.

Today there was this young guy painting a wall and after about the fifth time I ran past him I saw the look he gave me and I swear he thought I was trying to get his attention by running past so often. So when I got to my turn around point I crossed the highway and ran back on the other side of the road.

Little did I know that he had also crossed the road to get something out of his car so it looked even more like I was stalking him when he caught my eye as I passed him again .. so embarrassing.

But then I rationalised it in my head and figured no amount of embarrassment was getting in the way of my next marathon achievement so the last two times I had to run past him I held my head high and gave him a big smile as I ran past.

I know … Runners are total weirdo’s.