So here we are, at the end of the twelve weeks block that I had set myself in order to try and give myself the best possible chance of setting a big new pb at the Berlin Marathon. It has been, without a doubt, the biggest and most demanding spell of training that I have undertaken. It is also definitely the best and most consistent spell of training I have ever done.
Twelve weeks ago, I set off with two main aims: 1) to average above 80 miles a week, in order to give myself the best possible endurance base ahead of the race; 2) to try and get a few carefully selected races in, and as much pace work each week as possible, in order to try and keep as much of my top end speed as possible.
My mileage at the end of the 12 weeks reads as follows: 83, 85, 79.5, 85, 87, 78.5, 88.5, 89.5, 77, 90.5, 87, 69.5. This means I ran exactly 1000 miles over the course of the 12 weeks, at an average of 83.33 miles per week.
My racing has gone well, and I have ticked off as many boxes as possible and got as many of my long runs done as planned to give myself a great deal of confidence that I couldn't have done any more now to get in shape to pb on the day. Now I need to concentrate on making sure I judge the next two weeks dropping down well, and hope for a fair wind and ultimately a performance whereby I do myself justice on the day itself in Berlin.
This week, my main sessions were done back to back on the Wednesday and Thursday evenings. These were the final interclub race of the 2017 series, and an 8 mile tempo around the docks with Rob the day after.
The race was hosted by Red Rose, at Worden Park in Leyland. It was around 4.3 miles long and quite a twisty, turny course. Fortunately for me, there was a few runners missing from the front end and I was able to round off the series with a comfortable victory, without exerting too much energy. It was a pleasing win, that allowed me to complete the full set - an interclub Grand Slam! - with 7 wins out of 7. It is nice to have that little record, as I've been told it hasn't happened before, and having recorded 6 wins from the first 6 races two years ago, I had to miss the final race and the chance of the record then due to holidays.
My 8 mile tempo went better than expected on heavier legs than normal. I started off rather conservatively and finished up stronger to record an average pace of 5:33.
I took Friday off, rather than doing the planned 8-10 miles, as I had ran every day for the previous 20 days and had a massage booked in. I decided that the rest would probably do me as much good as the easy run I had planned.
On Sunday, I rounded off the final week of the block with a 17 mile long run, as I begin to reduce down the miles for the next couple of weeks. It's starting to get all the more real now, and I just hope that I can perform as planned on the day to do everyone proud.
Total mileage for the week: 69.5
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:23
Total mileage so far this month (September): 109.5
Total mileage for 2017: 2610.5
Average miles per day 2017: 10.36
