Days 57 to 60 for FLM 2009

After the excitement of finally nailing a title and topic area for my thesis, I've been trying to get on with writing up my notes for it. Still got a lot to go but its moreorless on its way.

With Uni work broken up with Marathon training, I ran at the club on thursday for 6 miles to Limehouse basin and back, with a lot of cycling that day and friday before taking it easy in view of todays 20 mile Finchley race up in Hillingdon, North West London.

The dashing chaps in the black and white photo are running the same race 50 years previously. This is Britain's longest running race over the distance, and last year I managed a 3 hour time on my debut. This year, with a year of training behind me, I shaved off a cool 23 minutes overall, to finish 177th in a field of 600 in 2:37:59.

All of my clubmates in attendance set personal bests, with one exception who was only a minute out. This years race was warmer than last, and it was a vastly different experience.
I felt in some ways more confident. In others less so. The speed and pace felt quicker as I was up the field, and as with a lot of my races since Christmas, I've had to get used to being lapped by people rather than overtaking a lot of slower runners as I seemed to do previously.

But I've got a good engine on me and I'm working hard to find a groove and staying in it and concentrating on my own race. In many ways it doesn't feel like I'm improving, but I've had to get tougher mentally to cope with focus on feeling comfortable and when need be stretch out and know that I've got the stamina to cope with the increased speed.

I got my results back from VO2 max testing last week and my speed and endurance have both increased since Christmas. What this means in Laymans terms is that I can last longer at a quicker pace without suffering the pain of lactate burn slowing me down.

With more speed work before the Marathon, I hope I can run at a slightly faster speed without any detriment. 20 miles is the optimum distance for what the human body can realistically take.
Between this point and mile 26 it can be tough as the body calls on the reserves of oxygen in your blood rather than from the surround. Your glycogen reserves are depleted and people slow - I saw this a bit at the end today where people were almost at walking pace having set off for too long at an unsustainable pace.

Having a strategy for taking on carbohydrate gels, energy drinks and sweets alleviates some of this but research shows a lot of it depends on ensuring your training has covered you for different eventualities, longer distances and knowing what your body can take. That and of course having the mental strength and skills for handling pain. Again, today, I used the breathing technique advised (in through the nose, out through the mouth and really focussing on trying to do this through your diaphragm and handling your pain rather and attending to it than trying to distract yourself).

As I tired, I really struggled to focus on the breathing as I tired, but trying to concentrate on it did work and I was able to stretch out in the last 2 miles. Finishing with a second to spare. Bring on the 22 mile run next week. :-)