The intention was to blog for the 12 weeks up to London and then give it a rest for a while on the basis that you can only post 'more of the same' type stuff for so long before eye lids start to droop.
However, with the next marathon build up being a very short one, it might provide a bit of interest to see how well things can bounce back, or otherwise, after the 3 marathons in 4 weeks.
So this is what the next one is all about, the Kent Roadrunner medal. This was the medal on display at the London Marathon Expo, it is large and chunky so a few neck strengthening exercises may have to be built into this next 4 weeks.
Mon 4/5: 27.0 Miles incl Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (28th) (26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile)
Tues 5/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:31/mile
Weds 6/5: 4.0 Miles incl John Carr 5k 17:27 (3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile)
Thurs 7/5: 8.0 Miles @ 9:01/mile
Fri 8/5: 8.0 Miles @ 9:04/mile
Sat 9/5: 4.0 Miles incl Bradford parkrun 18:29 (3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile)
Sat 9/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:31/mile
Sun 10/5: 14.0 Miles incl. Leeds Half Marathon 1:21:53 (13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile)
Total Mileage - 73.0 Miles
Monday 4th April - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (28th)
This event was covered in the last post so the question now turns to how hard is it going to be to recover from the combination of Canberra, London and Belfast marathons in the last 4 weeks?
(Thanks to Terry Lonergan for the photographic artwork)
Wednesday 6th May - John Carr 5k Race 1 (17:27)
The John Carr 5k races are a series of 3 events in successive weeks organised by Saltaire Striders at Esholt (where the original Emmerdale Farm was filmed).
With the first race falling just 2 days after Belfast Marathon it promised to be quite an ouchey affair. It had to be approached cautiously, at least early on, just in case.
But, surprisingly, it felt pretty much untroubled from the start and resulted in an equalling of the road 5k PB of 17:27, exactly the same as the time at Podium 5k a few weeks ago.
Was this a fluke of some sort? Well, Hannah also had the same experience and clocked a new PB of 17:34.
Clearly if you were actually targeting a 5k PB you wouldn't plan to run a marathon 2 days before, or 3 in the 4 weeks before, so what happened here? It isn't as if 5k is a rarely run distance, we race loads of them. Maybe, just maybe, it is actually the perfect build up for attempting a 5k PB but not many people are daft enough to try racing a 5k just two days after a marathon to find out?
Who knows?
It was a pleasant surprise anyway so a celebratory pint of Guinness was had with Tony Streams of Reading Road Runners:
Sunday 10th May - Leeds Half Marathon (1:21:53)
There was no intention to run this race until Wednesday, ie after we had seen how the legs had coped with the John Carr 5k.
As entries were still open we joined the other 9,000 or so entrants for this challenging course:
From the elevation profile, the approach had to be similar to Belfast six days earlier, ie a very cautious first half followed by a push in the second half. However, even with a cautious start there was no expectation of much of a push being available towards the end.
0-10 miles (1:02:01)
All the main lumpiness was in the first 10 miles so to see a time of 62 minutes was good. A time like that for a flat 10 miler in perfect conditions in the same week as a marathon would have been pleasing enough, so this was a good sign that marathon recovery was progressing pretty well.
10-13.1 miles (1:21:53)
It was always going to be this last 5k that was likely to be a struggle and, sure enough, that is how it turned out. There wasn't too much in the way of falling apart but there was just no ability to push on, a case of letting the remaining distance pass by rather than attacking it.
It felt heavy legged, so to see that the time for the last 5k was 19:52 was not bad at all.
Turning around after finishing, I first saw this (a rather exuberant John Robson enjoying his day :) ) :
..... and then this:
So, not only had Hannah held together ok after a very unconventional week, she had actually won the 2015 Leeds Half Marathon in a time of 1:23:13 :)
As Hannah credits the fact that she is running at all to Chris and Tracey Healey and the Airedale Dodgers, a hospital based running group at Airedale General, it was good to see the vest getting plenty publicity on Sunday.
And here they were post race leading us astray again ;)
Marathon Building Blocks:
15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile
22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile
28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile
28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile
1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile
8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile
14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile
14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile
15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile
21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile
22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile
28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile
29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)
4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile
12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile
18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile
19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile
26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile
4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile
6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile
10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile
Next Week:
As things stand at the moment the week is likely to include the 2nd race in the John Carr 5k series on Wednesday, Perry Hall parkrun on Saturday and Chester Half Marathon on Sunday.
Hopefully a total of 70+ miles with the rest being made up of the usual lazy stuff :)
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