Training Week 23 - Final long training run, Two weeks to go!

Thats it, the hard yards are done and so is my full time training!




Biggest running week yet this week over 80km, 4 mid-week runs culminating in another 32km (20 mile) endurance run. The next two weeks are now all about keeping my fitness up and giving the old shin splints, tendonitis and various other training ailments time to recover before the big run April 26th.



Now last week, fellow runner Charles and I attempted what we thought was a 30km run from my place up to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and back again (see videos on this page), now we took a couple of wrong turns along the way and when I did the final calculations we'd actually run just over 31.5km or some 19.7 miles. This took me some 3 hours and 20 minutes, my plan for this weeks long run was to replicate the run with a little added on to get it over the 20mile mark and ideally do it in a little less time..however first I had to do the warm up runs mid-week.



Tuesday Still pretty fatigued from Sundays effort I still managed 13.5km at a fairly easy pace

Wednesday Slightly less fatigued I gave a 15km run a go, I really wanted to lift my pace in this one..thought I did alright but turns out I went even slower than the previous night

Thursday Just adding on a little distance to the previous nights run, just over 16km at a good speed

Friday Pretty buggered by Friday so settled for an easy 4.5km run in the rain

Saturday Saturday off, rugby, ice, pub..drinking orange juice.., early night

Sunday 32km run following last weeks route only with a little bit added on to make it exactly 20 miles.

0-20km mark: Things were going well, I was running a good pace,didn't have to stop to retie laces and didn't get lost in Beckenham park, the day was pretty overcast so I wasn't even overheating
20-22km mark Start to notice I'm having trouble maintaining my pace..also notice I'm going through my limited supply of water a bit fast
25km-28km mark: In real trouble, pace remarkably slowed the couple of hills left really taking their toll, whole body aching, water now being sorely rationed..start to think about calling a cab
28km-31km: In agony, but keep telling myself if I can get through this then I'm all good for the marathon, start feeling really faint, keep trying to concentrate on the music I'm listening to to forget the pain
31km-32.2km Still not sure if I'd make it, kept feeling different movements in my legs suggesting something wasn't working right, my finish was a red post box, literately had tears in my eyes when I finished..except I was clearly dehydrated so it felt more like just pure salt. Lesson learned, take extra water.

Despite the horrors of the last 10km I still managed to shave a cool 7 minutes from the previous weeks time!



Its Tuesday night now and I'm still not quite 100%, have made an appointment with a physio for Friday to have one final rub down but I think as I'm now going to be on light training for the next two weeks I should be fine by the 26th.

Anyway very stoked now for getting those 2 x 20 miler runs under my belt before the big one, and very impressed by the amount of support and sponsorship I've had over the last 23 weeks. At last count we've raised £957.00, £130 coming in last week alone!

Just to illustrate further where this money is going please have a watch at Kith & Kids latest informational video below:



Righto, week 23 done! Bring on the penultimate week 24!


Week 23 Results:

Distance Covered: 81.4km
Total running time: 7 hours 42 minutes
Average speed: 10.6 km/h
Money Raised: £136.26 Big Cheers to, Amy, Erin, Mark, little Blake, Libby, Mark, Dave, Clare, Chris and Andy!