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Just over three weeks to go until the first major landmark of 2014’s running skyline: the London Marathon.
It’s hard to express how much I’m looking forward to being a part of the iconic event and, in a way, it’s even better that I’ve removed the pressure from the day by making it a secondary focus, with Liverpool being the main target time-wise six weeks later.
Thinking closer to today, however, Sunday sees the latest preparation race on the road to London with the annual Oakley 20 mile race taking place near Bedford.
This will be my first 20 mile race – I was entered into last year’s Oakley event but the inclement weather at the time saw it snowed off; a far cry from the balmy sunshine on the streets of Milton Keynes for the half marathon two weeks ago.
I’m a little unsure how to tackle Oakley – I can’t imagine I’d be able to maintain half marathon pace for another 7 miles, but at the same time I don’t want to under-sell myself by going in at marathon speed and no more.
Perhaps the best solution is to start at a steady pace and see how it feels – which leads me to tonight’s training run.
I was left chasing my tail in terms of mileage this week after a day working in London saw me back home later than planned and short on time.
Thursday evenings are usually my scheduled tempo run, which is planned to increase as the programme develops, in line with my overall mileage – which, for this week was pencilled in at 53.
However, arriving home tired after a 6am start and thee hours wasted to commuted meant a rapid five miler was the best I could do.
Instead, my normal Friday night bobble would be switched to a more uptempo effort – but with energy levels low and concentration on the floor, I’d need to find a way of freshening things up.
The solution? A progressive tempo run.
Starting out with a gentle warm up, the run progresses mile by mile by steadily increasing pace from my easy level through to the equivalent of my 10k PB.
In the end, this today resulted in just over 12 miles at around my target marathon pace – which would normally be a bit if a grind at a constant pace.
By mixing things up, an otherwise monotonous trek became an engaging and refreshing workout, which is far more valuable, challenging and morale boosting ahead of Sunday and the weeks ahead.
I’ve never before taken on a race with varied or wavering pace strategies – as Sunday represents a fresh distance and a new challenge, it seems a perfect opportunity to try something out and develop my approach to racing.
Now that’s progress.