Week commencing 25th January

Posted at 14:28 on Feb 25, 2010 by Michelle White

This week I have mostly been dealing with schedule anxiety.  How do people train for a marathon and work at the same time – I realise now I should have taken a sabbatical!

I do a 60 minute run on Tuesday with plenty of hills – plus 40 minutes of Pilates – it all feels fine except it’s bitterly cold outside.  Thursday, I do a 40 minute interval run at the gym on the treadmill plus 20 minutes on the cross trainer and a few (light) weights.  There is a temptation with my marathon nerves to do nothing but run for the next three months – however, every marathon veteran I talk to extols the need to train in different areas in order to strengthen various parts of the body – and to avoid dying of sheer boredom – so I am taking this advice to heart where possible.

 I swap my long run this week to Saturday as I’m working all day Sunday.  I wake up bright and early on Saturday morning raring to go and low and behold, it has snowed overnight.  I spend thirty minutes staring anxiously out of my window wondering if I can go for my run without risking injury – eventually two brave people jog past quite happily – neither of them falls over and breaks their necks so I don my gear and step outside.  It is actually a beautiful day, cold but amazingly sunny, so I decide to explore new terrain and run up to the common for my 1 hour and 45 minute run.  Naturally,  I get hopelessly lost on the common (there is no such thing as a straight line in the wilderness) and end up running for two hours – I feel extremely tired afterwards but my body holds up okay – hurrah.

This week I complete only 3 runs – but I feel fine about this given my 2 hour epic on Sunday.  I have also spent the week filling out a food diary so I can be assessed and put to dietary rights by sports nutritionist Lynn Clay.  This has been a really useful exercise in itself as it has made me super aware of everything I consume over the course of four days - so even if you’re not seeing a nutritionist I’d recommend it.  I send the diary off to Lynn at the end of the week and am very much looking forward to her analysis in a couple of weeks time.

Last week I raved about pilates and how much it helps to improve core strength and running posture – this week I am raving about something much lazier – saunas.  Having never had a sauna in my life – I have finally discovered what the small wooden box in the changing rooms at my gym is – and I have had two in one week!  After stretching this has been a great way for me to help relax stressed muscles and mind alike – a suitably indulgent finish to the training week.

Next week: Work versus running – let the battle commence.