Return to marathon training 2024: Weeks 6 to 11

I am currently training for Newport Wales marathon (which I will generally just call Newport marathon). It will be my fourth marathon and my third time at Newport. This time, I have set myself the challenging, but hopefully manageable, target of completing it in under four hours. My previous PB, at Newport in 2021, was 4:07:18.

You can read about weeks 1 to 5 of my training here.

A few months ago, I started going to the gym once a week, to support my running. So I do that as part of my training every week.

In week 6, I ran a total of 34 miles. I started the week with a six mile run, then I did another six miles speed endurance training with the running club. I also did a five mile run and a fast parkrun (22:30 – my fourth fastest parkrun ever). I finished the week with 14 miles on Sunday, which was my longest run since Manchester marathon in 2022.

Week 7 was a big one, with a total of 39 miles. I started the week with a six mile run and the gym. The speed endurance session with the club was a bit longer than usual, at seven miles. Friday morning was my longest midweek run so far with eight miles. Then I rounded the week off with parkrun on Saturday and 15 miles on Sunday. I must admit that I felt invincible running eight miles before work, then plodding round 15 miles I was thinking ‘I’m never running another marathon again!’. Remarkably, after all that hard work, I managed to maintain an overall 9 minute/ mile pace for 15 miles.

Week 7 was the week I went back to fuelling on my long run – partly because at 15 miles it’s getting to the point where I need to, but mainly just because I need to get used to it again! I stuck with my tried and tested combination of Go Bites (gluten free, natural, easy to digest) and Clif Bloks energy sweets. I’d forgotten how dry the Go Bites are! I prefer the Bloks, but don’t think it would be good for my stomach to just eat them.

Week 8 was actually a slightly shorter one, with a total of 35 miles. The week started with six miles and the gym again. I actually couldn’t do parkrun this week, as I had to take my daughter to a university offer holder day. This was the first Saturday I hadn’t been to a parkrun as either a runner, volunteer or both for well over a year (I didn’t miss a single one in 2023). I replaced parkrun with a five mile run with the club on Wednesday evening. The speed endurance session on Thursday was shorter than usual, at just four miles, and Friday’s run was another four miles. I ended the week with 16 miles on Sunday – seven on my own and nine with my husband. Every time the distance increases, I feel a bit daunted. I start the run feeling a bit miserable, and always enjoy the second half more than the first. I hit my overall 9 minute/ mile pace again, which  I was happy about.

I started week 9 with five miles and the gym. Then I woke up the following morning with discomfort in my right calf. I decided to give the speed endurance session a miss to recover. Then I ran five miles on Friday, a fast parkrun on Saturday (I was first lady!) and 18 miles on Sunday – five miles on my own and 13 miles with my husband. That was a total of just 31 miles for the week.

Week 10 didn’t go to plan as I got Covid. I started the week with my first ever sports massage, which was nowhere near as painful as I’d been led to believe it would be. I then ran five miles and went to the gym on Tuesday. I was surprised that my heart rate for my run was about 10 beats per minute faster than usual. I also couldn’t shake my tiredness – blaming either the 18 mile run or the sports massage. When I started coughing on Wednesday, I did a Covid test and it was positive. I was supposed to do my longest midweek run of the whole training plan on Friday – 1o miles. I finished a short week with a slow parkrun at Gladstone in North West London on Saturday.

Plan A for week 11 was a sort of ‘week 10b’. I was aiming to run Weston Super Half at half marathon PB pace on Sunday, so had planned week 11 as a rest week to prepare for Weston. But, having lost a week to Covid and knowing I wouldn’t be able to run a PB, I decided to run Weston as a training run at nine minute mile pace, so that I could get back as much of the lost week of training as possible. I started the week with five miles and the gym on Tuesday. I returned to the speed endurance session with the club on Thursday and ran it a bit slower than usual, but still covered five miles. I ran six miles on Friday and the half marathon on Sunday – a total of 29 miles for the week.

Now it’s time for the final few weeks of training, ahead of Newport Wales marathon at the end of April…