Tuesday 31st January....

Well after a short 5 day break from running, including two days of football, I was back on the roads and feeling quite good this evening with 5 miles under the belt in little over 51 minutes.

The weather is getting much colder, and is set to continue to drop...which isn't a problem for most areas, but certainly the wind and cold air attacks the face pretty badly, which gave me quite the headache tonight whilst running...but looking forward to 6 decent miles tomorrow evening, and then 5 on friday and 1 hour 45 minutes on saturday, hopefully equating to 10 miles in distance.

At this stage of training, after one month from 4, I feel that in terms of endurance and distance I have progressed very well, hitting 20 miles plus each week until week 4, when I took a rest week, with only 15 miles covered.
Speed wise I'm not too confident so far, but plenty of time for that.

Plans for february include -

• 24-30 mile weeks
• Going from 5 to 6 days of running each week
• Completing another ParkRun - improving on previous time
• Covering 13 miles - 2hr15 or 2hr30 run
• INJURY FREE!!

If I can stick to this, it will set me up quite well for the Larne Half in March, and I will begin to see if I can set an achievable target for the Belfast Marathon but....a month is a long time!

As an aside, somewhat off topic, I would like to express my delight at tonight's football results; namely the win of the champions Manchester United, and the defeat suffered by Manchester City - shall run tomorrow with added vigor due to this....

Parkrun debut...

So after another week of fairly successful training, I decided to partake in the Belfast Waterworks Parkrun event, a weekly 5k race that I had yet to attend.

Turning up at 9.10am on a cold, very windy saturday morning I wasnt sure what to expect, but there were over a hundred runners turned up for the 5k race and although the course consisted of a number of hills, I managed to run quite well, finishing with an official time of 28.16, and in 105th position on the day, which while it was a fair 4 or 5 minutes off my personal best at this distance, was still a good barometer of where I am at currently in regard to fitness at this distance.  The plan is to continue training for another 3 weeks and then try this event again, and I am hoping for a 2-3 minute increase in time next time out.

Still to complete my weekly long run this week, to be 9 miles and have this pencilled in for Monday evening after work, as the legs didnt quite have it in them today!  This will end week 3 on a total of of 24 miles, and with my first race under my belt of the year, hopefully getting the legs in some sort of shape for the larne half marathon in march, and belfast in May.

Friday the 13th...Jason here....

So on Friday 13th of all days, I believe I should really update my blog...as it seems to have taken a backseat, but the same can't be said for my running, which is continuing, and I am still yet to miss a run through fatigue/illness/injury...

So for a quick update, since my last blog, I managed a 55 minute run on saturday of week 1...amounting to 20 miles that week, which is considerably more than I had managed in my first week the previous two years.

Monday consisted of football, while tuesday saw me run for 65 minutes, 20 minutes longer than was planned, and cover 6 miles.  Wednesday was a 5k in the gym, lasting 33 minutes, and tonight I covered 7.5 miles in 1hour 25 minutes.

Unfortunatly, as I found out tonight, almost to my demise, the cold weather is setting in, resulting in ice on pavements....this wasn't an issue for the 4 miles, but the last two or so were quite dicey, and had to tread carefully.

Quite surprised also that my last 2 miles tonight were the fastest of the whole run, and I am hoping my 5 mile run tomorrow goes well also!

So friday the 13th turned out pretty well after all for Jason....

Day 5....

So having completed my third run of training so far, 45 minutes last night which amounted to about 4.1 miles, I am quite aware that my body isn't quite into the whole idea of running again yet... Will probably take a week or two before mind and body agree that running is what we're doing again...

Very much enjoying my runs currently, easy running for time at the moment and building endurance and mileage up. Aiming for 20 miles this week and will build from next week onwards...

Day one down...124 days to go....

After beginning my marathon training on Monday 2nd January, with a 3 mile run at quite a slow pace, I followed this up with football on Monday evening...one or the other has caused my legs to feel rather fatigued today, and I am quite glad that I have a day off training today.

Running that is...it will be time for the gym tonight after work for some upper body weights work, as well as a relaxing sauna session to hopefully sooth the muscles in time for my run tomorrow.

My marathon training plan loosely follows the principles of the Hanson brothers, and also combines this with the thinking of North Belfast Harriers' Darryl Blair.  The major differences in the two plans is the consitency of Darryls, against the slow buildup, and added speedwork in the Hanson brothers plan.  I plan to merge the two, with a slow buildup for the first 4-6 weeks, to aid me in returning to some sort of fitness, along with the reduced speedwork as advised by Darryl.  I then plan to consistently hit the times set out in Darryls plan in terms of time spent running per day, and hopefully this will fall quite closely in line with the Hanson plan that I began looking at.

One thing that both plans seem to be based on, is slightly higher than average weekly mileage, with the long run at weekends being shortened slightly, over other marathon training plans. 

For example, in previous years, by week 12, I would have run 18+ miles at least twice, with one being 20-22 miles long.  This always seemed to take a bit more out of me than I had, and I always failed to finish these runs strongly.  The current plan, bases the long runs at no more than 16 miles, to ensure that it is a lower percentage of total weekly mileage.  The run the day before makes it a long run, on tired legs.  For example, the longest run is 16 miles, which follows a steady 10 miles the day before.  Therefore, 26 miles is covered over two days, rather than during one effort.

I am hoping this approach will enable me to avoid injuries and perform stronger than in previous years, including a possible negative split race (second half faster than the first half).

So according to the Belfast City Marathon website, only another 124 days to go...