No Exercise for Days!!

It is strange not exercising for a few days but these are essential before running a marathon.

There is only a bit over a day and a half until the marathon and with an early morning start on Sunday to get their. At the moment I am calm about the race however that will very likely change in the few hours before the race. After all I am just going for a bit of a run for a few hours with 12,000 other people!!!

Last Run before Marathon

Last night I did my last run before the marathon. I did an interval running session last night which was a form of speedwork. I was using the garmin 305 workout option which was really useful as it bleeps between the hard an easy sessions and counts the number of reps.

The beeps was useful as it is was dark when I was running so I did not have to look at my watch to see how long is left of that part of the session.

Pre Marathon Weigh-in

My last weigh in before the marathon and I have lost nearly 2 lbs (0.8 Kg) this week which now makes me 82.5Kg. However checking my records I am 1.5 Kg more than the same time last year before the race but my waist and % body fat are similar.

Swimming Training for Ironman

I have had some “gentle” introduction to ironman swimming this week. As I went to a different swimming pool which had narrow lanes. These were just wide enough for a person swimming up and down the pool length. However sometimes depending on the other persons stroke you where getting hit or kicked. This was from the lane next to me as well as the lane I was in.

For the ironman swim their will be over 1,000 people in a lake, I have done a triathlon where there was about a tenth of that size at my start time.

Nearly a Triathlon in Training

I nearly did a triathlon in training this evening!!

I did 800m swimming and then 20 minutes afterwards I did about 5 miles of running which was a speed-hill session. The only problem was the cycle, however I did first go to a cycle shop to get some endurance nutritional products but that was the closest I got to cycling.

Pimp by Bike

I have been on a cycle maintenance course today, I now can change a tyre on my bike :-)

I learnt lots about my bike and how to maintain it. The only trouble is now there are a lot more extra bits I could buy for my bike.

Lots of Cakes

I made some cakes this week for charity cake sale for the charity I am running the marathon for. I made some plain and sultana cakes, in addition some banana muffins. I had to try a banana muffin after they where made for quality control reasons :-)

The cakes I made sold out within 90 minutes, but they had lots of cakes made for them. I found out that they made nearly £800, that is a lot of cakes!!

Just what the doctor did not order

With less than 2 weeks to the marathon I am doing, typical I get a cold and sore throat. I will have to take various vitamins/supplements to help me recover without affecting the training I have done recently. The next few days I will take a bit more easy with a couple of days rest before training again.

Weigh-in

Despite running a 10km race this weekend I have put on 2 lbs (1Kg) this week. I think this was due to the amount and type of food I had this weekend staying with family.
I will need to be more careful about the amount of food I eat in the next few weeks, as my running mileage will be reduced in the build up to the marathon in a few weeks time.

Weekend Race

At the weekend I completed a 10km running race. I did it over 45 minutes, which was nearly 2 minutes quicker than I had done previously on that course but just under 2 minutes away from my PB.

It was a windy day 15mph winds coming off the North Sea with the course being multiple laps along the seafront. It felt a hard race while running it despite it being virtually flat. Later after the race I checked my heart rate data from my garmin 305 which showed the average for the whole race was 93% of my working heart rate range. I have not run with that much effort over that sort of distance for a few months which I think told on the race time.

I will be taking it a busy easier in training in the next few days.

Training

Af the last few days of a hill session, gym class, gym work and swimming I think I will have a rest day on Saturday. Hopefully I will be rested enough for a 10km race on Sunday.

Hills

I did a hill session on Wednesday night. It had a bit of a twist, as we started at various places on the hill but as the distance decreased the pace was increased. There was one other person who decided to do hills rather than a 5 or 8 mile run.

At least the rain had stopped by the time we started to run.

Weekly Weigh-in

This week my clothes did feel looser. When I did the measurements I had lost 0.5 cm of my waist and 0.5 Kg (1 lb), which now makes me 82 Kg.

Swim Session

At Lunchtime I had a good swim today, doing 500m at a pace which felt fast for me. At the end I found out it was a few minutes quicker than I previously had done which took me 12 minutes (too the nearest minute).