In the week following Brighton I used my ElliptiGO stand up bike on the Monday to provide a zero impact recovery workout. It's a great bit of kit and perfect for active recovery. Nothing strenuous at all but just to stretch the muscles and see how they were feeling the day after the marathon. As suspected my legs felt very well used!! Nothing unexpected there then. I could feel the slight twinge in my right leg where it complained in those last miles but not pain so it's not anything to worry about.
I had 5 days of rest after that ride before going for a run on the Saturday. 5 miles at a very easy pace. No twinge felt during that first run and whilst still tired it was normal post race fatigue.
This week I won't be doing too much either mainly enforced because of business travel but have packed my gear and will use the hotel gym to keep things ticking over.
What I do want to quickly reflect on is Sunday's London Marathon. I really felt for all the runners out there on the hottest day of the year. All those months of training and hard work, trying to peak for one day and one big race with hopes no doubt of PBs and the weather decides otherwise. I manage the Lucozade Drinks Station at Mile 15 so witnessed first hand just what effect the weather had on peoples pace. There was a very noticable slow down compared to the previous year in terms of the numbers of runners coming through far later than is usual. It was bloody hot even just standing there and providing words of encouragement as runners passed let alone running a marathon.
I think back to Brighton the weekend before and how damn fortunate we were with the weather. Just 7 days apart and it would have resulted in a completely different outcome if I had to endure running in that heat in Brighton. One club mate who ran London aiming for his first sub3 did achieve it with remarkably even pacing from start to finish with just 5 seconds separating his slowest and fastest 5K split times. So it could be done but he was the exception. Many others I knew didn't have such a good time out there. Many whom are faster than I am and had hopes of finishing 2.50-2.55 but came in 20+ minutes over their goal.
And as runners we all know how much we can beat ourselves up for such performances even though its completely out of our hands. When you work so hard for something but don't achieve what you set out to do it can be a bitter pill to swallow but that's life. We have to be prepared for set backs and rarely does everything go exactly according to plan.
So reflecting on this I will ensure I remember this going into phase 2 of my training. I will look to control the controllables but not concern myself with those things that I have no control over. And over the course of an entire year of marathon training for the 3 in 3 Marathon Challenge I have to accept that things can happen. The most likely weather event to ruin the challenge will be in Snowdonia at the end of October where you can literally experience 4 seasons in one day. So I have to be ready for that!!
So what's next...?
London 10000 at the end of May. So next week I will begin training for this and focusing just on my speed. One mile pace, 3k and 5k pace and build it up. Lots of rep work and generally very tough but short sessions. And hopefully time permitting also a mid-week or weekend long slow run. But this won't be more than 10 miles.
Returning back to the ElliptiGO for a second I bagged a bargain yesterday and snapped up an Orange (discontinued) ElliptiGO 8C model. Less than 500 miles on the clock compared to my 12,000 miles ridden on mine. Isn't she gorgeous!!!
That's me for now. Thanks again for everyone support in my challenge. I've now raised over £1,300 for the #goodshepherdcommunitybusproject.
Thanks so so much.
www.sponsorstuart.me
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