Change of training. Change of blog content

The weekly blog post, a bit like me, has come unstuck in the last few days. Over 16 weeks, your training fluctuates through periods of brilliance and periods of lethargy/tiredness/life getting in the way. Last week was one of those. My weekly total mileage was 21 miles for the last 7 days. Hardly where you want to be 12 weeks before tackling a 26 mile race! But at least what I did was quality.

However, without much detection work I know why. Monday to Thursday, with all guns blazing I put extra effort into keeping the good work of the previous week. Over the weekend I took the gas off the pedal and my only exercise was hiking on one of the last 3 days. I had been pushing myself the previous ten days, but the lethargy of the last 3 days I've put down as rest so that I can let my body recover and ramp up for the next intense 10 I've got.

My coach has reworked my training plan to lessen the importance of the weekly 'long run.' I've been instructed not to run any more than 2 hours in one go before the marathon itself (normally, you're advised to complete at least 22 miles). On average, I run an 8 minute mile, which now means not going any further than 15 miles on the longest run! He does say that if you want to extend stamina in one day to top this up later with 6 miles in the evening.

Other changes include:

• Core work and stretching most days of the week - not just on one day. I will be doing yoga as part of my training but also undertaking a series of daily exercises.
• Swimming and cycle through the week, with at least 2 speed sessions a week.
• Rest for 3 or 4 days every 4 weeks.

With this in mind, I will be touching a total of 40 miles running this week. In my next blog post I will be writing about coping with pain, an inevitability in endurance sport. In addition, over the next 2 months I will be interviewing coaches, psychologists and sport scientists and uploading the videos of the interviews to this blog.

I'm interested in coaching athletes, of all levels and abilities to help move people nearer to where they want to be in their sporting achievements. In the process, I work at both mental and physical conditioning for competition. I'll be asking experts their views, and passing these to you to help with training. If you have any questions, please email me and I'll include them where I can.