Tuesday 1 November 2016

October 2016 Training and the 2017 Plan

It appears I haven't written a running blog since way back in August 2015. I think that probably gives you a fair indication of how well I have run in 2016. Prior to October my 2016 mileage totalled a paltry 457 miles. A 49 minute 10k in April, a pleasing 1:47 in the Half at Stratford upon Avon, keeping my streak of Southend Half Marathon's going in June and dropping out at halfway in the Berlin Marathon was all the racing I had done.

A number of factors then combined to give me a kick up my no good lazy butt. My abject preparation for Berlin meant using it as a training run was definitely the safest and best option and I didn't want to enter races only to perform way below what I was capable of. The second factor was the target I have set myself for 2017, to run at least one race a month, anything from parkrun to Ultra, all to raise funds for Sarcoma a charity that is raising awareness of this rare form of Cancer, that my friend Sophie's brother Marcus succumbed to in February this year.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/runformarcus2017

Armed with this new found motivation and keen to start as I meant to go on I have thrown myself into training in earnest.

October saw me running 136 miles over the course of 19 runs. 4 or 5 times a week. I have only run more miles than that in a month, 3 times over the 7 and a half years I have been running and so it's been a start that me and my coaching team (supportive friends and family) have been really pleased with. It's been dominated by steady base building running, but I did make it down to Southend for a parkrun and finished 32nd in a time of 22:16, I was beaten by those younger and older than me and so some how managed to be first home in the Male 30-34 category. I've not been brave enough to check back at the results to find out how few turned up in that category but a win's a win.

Looking forward to November I will look to run 5 times a week, hopefully beating the October Mileage, even with a day and a weekend less. I also have another parkrun planned and would expect to beat my previous time, as well as running St Neots Half Marathon to see what shape I am in over the longer distance. Come back in early December to see how I have fared. #runformarcus