Hi, I'm Sarah and I am currently knee-deep in marathon training.
No points to me for imagination. Think I'm
going to have to lower my expectations for this one.
Gets out of the bad rut.
I'm currently training to run my first ever marathon in Amsterdam in October.
And as I'm filming this, there are only nine weeks to go.
I'm not sure why I said that out loud. Now I feel a little bit sick.
But training is really ramping up and I'm starting to feel it quite a lot.
So I thought I would take you along with me for a weekend of running so you can
see the highs and the lows of marathon training. Let's do this.
So it's Friday and I am out for 8K easy to
steady followed by 8 times 100 metres strides. So let's be honest,
it's more like 9K,
although I'm sure if someone asks me at the end to run the extra 200 metres,
I'd probably tell them to leave
and politely never ask them to speak to me ever again.
I'm currently on week seven of The Running Channel's
marathon training plan - head to the link in the description
if you want to download it and have a go yourself and for the eagle-eyed amongst
you, yes, I should not be doing this run on a Friday. Yes,
I should have done it yesterday, but unfortunately,
life just got in the way this week. Um,
I was really busy on Wednesday and then I felt really ill Wednesday night.
So then I prioritised sleep Thursday morning and then I had to work late,
so I missed the run Thursday evening.
So I'm cramming it in this morning and I'm hoping it's not going to affect my
weekend of running too much.
I have got a horrible weekend of running coming up though.
I've got 2 times 5K on Saturday - since when was 5K an interval?
And then I've got 60 minutes easy on Sunday.
So not massive in terms of distance,
but a double back-to-back days of quite hard running, which,
you know, the purpose of it is to get used to running on tired legs,
so it's great for marathon training, but it sounds pretty grim.
The last few weeks, my
Easy to steady runs have been 10K. I am currently 3K in,
and this run's only 8K and it's hurting so much more than
usual.
I am struggling.
I think I'm going to have to lower my expectations for this one.
8K done.
Now time for some strides. Brilliant. More fast running.
Dunno what happened. I used to really like strides. I think though,
it might've just been because I'd never done them before and anything's exciting
when it's new and now the novelty has worn off and I'm just sprinting up and
down the road, not knowing really how long a hundred metres is so
I have to keep looking at my watch, which is not great for pace.
And it's pretty boring, I'm not gonna lie. Four down,
four to go. Let's do this.
Well, that was an experience.
I think I wanted to go faster, but my legs just physically couldn't,
they were too tired. Um,
and I think what's really hard is I get so tunnel-visioned when I'm in a training
run or a session because I have gone faster than that in the grand scheme of
life. But equally I am 7 weeks now into the training plan,
and this is the most consistent training that I've ever done.
So I'm only going to get more tired now and it's only going to get harder.
So I'm now into the unknown of how my body adapts and how I actually
operate when I'm tired.
So I think my problem isn't getting out the door to do the training sessions,
you know, I can, I can tick all the boxes and turn up and start running,
but it's the other stuff that I need to prioritise now. Sleep, fuelling,
rest, recovery,
all of those things that you don't think has a massive difference,
but as soon as one of those things slips, it all starts to unravel.
So on that note, I'm now going to go and refuel properly,
have a good rest and prepare for the weekend of running.
So it's now time for two times 5K. Disgusting.
Although I do kind of prefer the sessions where it's a little bit broken up.
So I've got 5K at marathon pace,
then 4 minutes recovery and then another 5K at slightly faster than
marathon pace. Only problem is obviously I've never run a marathon before,
so I don't really know what my pace is. So I'm going to go with the first 5K
at slightly slower than half marathon pace, and then the second one
a little bit closer to 10K pace. Either way,
this is going to be a learning curve,
but I've got 2K to do for the warmup to start off. So let's go do it.
Ah.
1.5K in, 0.5K to go until the first
5k interval. Do you even call it an interval if it's that long?
I've been procrastinating this all day and I still don't want to do it.
Haven't thought of a route and haven't thought of a tactic.
I've got podcasts lined up but that is about it in terms of preparation.
So this is probably not going to go well.
Right, First 5K.
Let's do this. Lap the watch. Off we go.
Halfway through the first 5K. Not loving it, not loving it.
My legs feel
like they've run 50K not 4.6.
Still got another 2.5K and I'm struggling to hit the pace that
I wanted to for this first 5. And the second 5 needs to be faster.
This is hard. 1.5K left of this first
5K. Still hating it, but I need tactics.
Tactic is... forget the other one is even happening.
So for all intents and purposes,
I've only got 1.5K left. Buzzing.
I can hit 5:30 pace for this last 1.5, can't I?
Yes I can. Yes I can.
And I will, and then, then we'll think about the rest of it.
Let's try that.
First 5k done.
That was really hard, really hot,
not enjoyable.
And now I've got to run 5k faster. I think this is supposed to be
four minutes jogging. Um,
that's not happening.
I'm just going to take myself for a little walk, um,
and hope that in this four minutes,
my legs forget what's already happened and are tricked
into thinking that it's a new day, it's a new run.
We're just going out for 5K.
Pace needs to be somewhere between 5:15 and
5:30. 4 minutes is
up.
I need to stop lying to myself that I'm not running another 5K, and run another 5K.
Come on, Sarah. Get out of the bad rut. Let's do
this. My legs actually feel a little bit more human now. So that's something.
Off we go.
Start the watch. This is, without a doubt,
the hardest session so far. 2K left to go.
I am clinging on by
don't even know what the phrase is, hanging on by the skin of my teeth.
Clinging on for dear life.
One of them.
Less than a K to go. I think I've got my- into my stride now.
Although
the lack of route planning definitely means I'm going to be finishing uphill.
Not ideal. Wow.
That was gruelling and that last 5k was so,
so tough.
I'm so glad that I had good music and good podcasts to get me through that
because it's one thing doing a tough session and, you know,
battling through it physically. But mentally, that was a challenge as well.
And I felt like I was just battling my brain the whole way through that. Um,
and what I'm finding difficult is that marathon training compared
to 5K, 10K, half marathon stuff that I'd done before,
is it's constant. It's so constant. And if I'm not running,
I'm thinking about running, if I'm not thinking about running,
then I'm probably thinking about something to do with running,
like planning in when I can do my strength and conditioning or when I can
fit in meeting up with a friend and cramming a run beforehand or what to eat
to prepare for the run the next day.
It quite literally takes over every single aspect of your life.
And what's scaring me is that I'm coming to the end of week 7,
but there's still nine weeks to go. Like I'm not even halfway yet.
And it only gets harder from here.
And I don't know anyone- like I don't live with anyone else
who's marathon training, I don't know anyone close to me
who's doing it at the same time.
And so you're quite often just battling through it by yourself.
I actually had a really good conversation though
with Mary who works at The Running Channel and who's run
lots of marathons is so knowledgeable and she sat me down and went,
this is fine. This is totally normal. Everyone feels this.
And it really helps to just have someone else who has
done it before and feels the same way or who's going through the same thing who
can just put your mind at ease.
So if you're watching this and you've run a marathon before and you have any
words of wisdom,
please do leave them in the comments below because reading your tips and advice
in previous episodes has been so valuable. So thank you.
And please keep them coming.
And if you're watching this and you're training for your first marathon and
you're finding it tough as well, then don't worry.
Same here. It's hard. Um, the training sessions are brutal,
but we've got this.
I'm giving you a big virtual hug for your training and chin up, onto
the next session, onto the next week, we can do this.
Morning. It's Sunday.
I was about to get ready to go out on a run when the postman arrived with this
massive box that says Mizuno on the side. So should we open it up?
Oh wow.
Look at this. Look at that design.
That is amazing.
I've done the classic thing of opening the present before the card.
Let's have a read. It says, Sarah, we know how hard marathon training can be.
Tell me about it. And you are doing an amazing job.
Here's something to remind you of what you are working towards.
Keep training hard. And you've got this. Team
Mizuno. That is so lovely. And I think, yes,
this is the Amsterdam marathon kit,
which is in collaboration with the Rijksmuseum.
So we've got this awesome t-shirt with crane birds on it
and shoes. So these are the Wave Skyrise
2 shoes, and they say Amsterdam on them.
This is so cool.
So I've been reading about the design of the kit, um, on the pattern,
which is on the heel of the shoe and on the tongue of the shoe represents the
crane bird, but it also represents a traditional kimono pattern. Um,
and together with this joint
meaning it represents, I'm going to pronounce it wrong
so I'm going to read it, 'senba tsuru' or a thousand cranes,
a traditional act where a thousand crane
birds are folded out of origami paper and put together to make a wish come true.
Hopefully this is going to help make my marathon wish come true of being
able to put one foot in front of the other for 26.2 miles.
Fingers crossed.
Now, if this video gets to 3000 likes,
we will be giving away a pair of these awesome shoes and hopefully they can
make your marathon dreams come true,
whether that's in Amsterdam or any other marathon that you may want to enter,
all you have to do to enter this competition is like this video ,drop a comment
down below, and you could be in with a chance of winning a pair of the issues.
Now I've got all of this inspiration. I'm so excited.
I think it's about time I went out and did my run. Let's go. So it's now
Sunday and time for 60 minutes easy.
The kind of long run of the week and arguably the most boring session.
So in order to make it interesting, I've downloaded a podcast,
I've got some music queued up for once that finishes and I've also downloaded a
route onto my running watch, um, which I'm going to be following.
And I'm just walking to the start of that
now. I find that if I'm planning a route myself
for a kind of longer run anything over 30 minutes, I am terrible.
I will turn around at like 26 minutes and just do it there and back.
And then I'll end up back home with 10, still to go on the clock,
lose all motivation and end up not running for an hour.
So I'll plan in a route on my watch instead, and just follow that,
enjoy having no idea where I am. Um,
and I just find it a lot more interesting. Loads of you
who've been commentating about how you make long runs interesting as well.
And I have loved reading all of your suggestions to lots of people saying that
audio books are a great shout for the longer runs because you're not going to
run out of things to listen to.
So I'm definitely going to use that for the 30K and anything over an hour.
Other people were saying grab a running buddy.
And then you've got someone else to motivate you and they can plan the route or
you can plan the route,
and then you're kind of following what someone else is doing,
which I love as well. Another suggestion was head to the trails,
so you've got pretty scenery to look at, which I really like as well.
So loads of suggestions, do keep them coming.
If you've got any other tips and tricks for long runs,
I love reading through them,
so just drop them in the comments down below, but for now
I think I've procrastinated long enough. It's time for 60 minutes easy.
30 minutes done, 30 minutes to go. It feels long,
but I'm feeling way more positive about it. I'm at the halfway point,
just got two 15 minute chunks. I can run for 15 minutes.
Then I can run for another 15 minutes.
I drew this route out on Strava and then uploaded it to my Garmin,
and I drew a kind of balloon shape. So I'm now at the top of the bloom, um,
and I think it's just 3K straight to get back,
which is not the most interesting of routes, so
no points to me for imagination. 45 minutes in,
15 minutes to go, feeling good.
It might be the most boring run of the week,
but I think this is my favourite one. Maybe because it wasn't a straight line,
I was wrong. I need to turn right. Oh, I'm going down that path
now. I've come down these really lovely country lanes,
no footpaths, so I'm having to run into the traffic for safety. And now, look at this.
Last run of the week complete, and that actually felt really good.
Glad I had some good music and podcasts to keep me going, but I got through it.
And I think now that all the hard sessions are out of the way, when you've
just got one easy run left to do, it feels really nice.
No pressure on myself, I just went at what felt easy.
It's definitely not my fastest run ever, but it didn't need to be.
And if you try and run everything super quick,
then you'll never get those fast paces. You need to have that variation.
So happy with that one and a great way to round off another week. And actually,
I didn't think I'd be saying this, but I'm looking forward to next week now.
Mad, absolutely mad. If you are struggling with your marathon training,
then give yourself a massive pat on the back at the end of each week,
break it down,
keep doing day-by-day, chunk-by-chunk, because we can get through it. We can,
and we will. I hope you've enjoyed this latest instalment.
If you do have any questions that you want answering in the next episode,
then drop them in the comments down below, have a lovely rest of your day, week,
whatever you're doing. Enjoy you run
if you're heading out for one now and we'll see you next time on The Running Channel.