Yes, taper time once more. It’s funny, but I never really mind the first week of the taper, in fact I’m usually pretty keen to have the cut back in my long run, but with the rest of my training throughout the week not particularly changing, I don’t really notice the taper until the second/third week. Given that this first taper week has coincided with the second half of my spring break, it’s been great to have the chance to continue with my relaxing routine. As a result I not only feel rested, but feel a bit mentally sharper and like my creative juices are flowing a bit more (which means I have loads of ideas for posts but probably not enough time to write them all while they’re still relevant. Oh well, c’est la vie!).
Monday – rest
Tuesday – bike reps @ the gym
Wednesday – hills
Thursday – Ashtanga yoga
Friday – PT session with Steve
Saturday – parkrun
Sunday – 16 miles
I decided I quite liked last week’s strategy of starting the day with a cup of the and my book in bed. This week’s reading material proved to be absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend everyone reads this book.
Once I was organised on Monday I took a walk to the gym to sit in the hot tub for a bit. My legs definitely needed the movement after running 20 miles on Sunday, so walking for a bit and having the time to relax in the warm water definitely made them feel much better. By the time I got home I was feeling pretty good – in no hurry to run for a day or two, but good!
Then on Tuesday I had to coerce my legs into a bit more activity. I walked to the gym once more, but this time to conquer another set of intervals on the bike. I was a little worried that I was going to struggle this time with the cumulative fatigue setting in, but actually I was able to get it done and that gave me a real sense of accomplishment. Yes, my legs were a bit weary, but the real battle was a mental one to convince myself to do it and I did. Job done!
My Wednesday run this week was hills. Goody! The thing about hills is that the efforts are short, but oh so tough. I don’t know if it was the different time of day, being better rested or further improvements in my fitness, but I felt like I was performing better and a comparison of the stats from the 2 activities shows that I was quicker over the harder (i.e. longer) intervals, so that’s more good news.
In the afternoon I had an appointment in town so headed in a bit early so I could potter about the shops for a while. And then I got hungry and ended up with the most middle class snack ever! Thank goodness for M&S š
Seriously! Quinoa waves? Who am I???
By Thursday I was looking forward to another Ashtanga yoga class. The hardest sessions of the week were done and it was time to do something a bit more relaxing. I felt like I was really strong in “wheel” this week, but not quite so amazing in my headstand work. I did manage a supported headstand though, and I know I’ll not get it every time so I’ll just go with what happens week on week.
On Friday I headed down to the studio for a personal training session. This time a bit of mobility work using my old friend the Core Momentum Trainer. Some of the exercises were a bit tricky as they involved both movement AND balance (not my strong suit!) but once I figured out the best way to fix my gaze point I found I was able to do them much more easily.
It was a Disney leggings kind of a day.
That night on the way home from dinner I decided to work on my balance a bit more. There’s this strange brick thing in our development that I just can’t understand. It almost looks like a plinth for something, but it’s been left like this for ages so who knows! Our running joke is that there should be a statue on it, so I thought I would demonstrate what that would look like. Can’t take me anywhere haha!
And then Saturday came around. Earlier in the week I had ordered some new leggings and was keen to debut them at parkrun.
Unicorns for the win!
Having been a little frustrated a couple of weeks ago when I narrowly missed out on a sub-24 minute time, I wanted to have another go. Being in that kind of shape gives me confidence as I approach a marathon and I realised that this would likely be my last chance as I’ll be using the run slightly differently for the next couple of weeks.
We were running anti-clockwise this time. The grass still isn’t recovered enough for us to run over it en masse, or at least it would be for one run but then we’d be right back where we started! There was a poll on social media to decide on the direction and it was a draw so anti-clockwise was chosen for a variety of reasons. Having learned my lesson I made sure I was fairly near the front so I could get a bit of space and shot off and soon as the RD said go! The pace felt hard, but achievable, and I got a bit of a shock when the first mile clocked in at 7:33 – a bit spicy for me!
Somehow I held on and mile 2 came in at 7:28. Still going! By this time I was doing the sums and realised I could be well within my goal time, it was just a case of hanging on. My legs, which I was expecting to turn to jelly at any moment, felt strong so I knew this was going to be all about keeping my head in it and pushing on.
A slight dip in mile 3 at 7:40, then a burst of speed in to the finish line to clock a time of 23:26!! Having thought I might manage just inside 24, that was a big surprise and, for stats fans, my 3rd fastest parkrun EVER! A very pleasing place to be at this stage in my preparations for Stirling and probably the confidence boost I needed that all the parts of my training are coming together.
He just can’t help himself!
The rest of the day was pretty chilled, and when Steve headed off to spend the afternoon with some friends I spent some quality time with my good friend Adriene.
Sunday was ājustā 16 miles (you know youāre at the end of a marathon training cycle when you add ājustā to ridiculous mileage thatās beyond many peopleās commute!). While I have no specific time goal for this marathon, preferring to remove the pressure and simply perform my best under whatever circumstances there are on the day, I do still want to formulate a plan for how Iām going to approach the race. Do I want to aim for a specific āfeelā or pace? Or do I want to do something like Iāve done in my longer training runs with a mixture of faster miles and recovery miles?
To help me decide, Steve suggested that I try running my 16 miles at a steady pace, somewhere around my dream finish time of 4 hours. Thatās 9:09 per mile. I knew I would have some hills in my route, but thought I could maybe balance it out a bit as there would be both uphill and downhill sections.
It was a beautiful morning with the sun out once more so my shorts got another airing. I wore a super-light long sleeved top but soon wished I had gone for something else as the sleeves were quickly rolled up and I was quite sure it was much warmer than the forecast had suggested. While I was trying to focus on how I felt rather than hitting a specific pace, I was checking my watch for a bit of feedback as each mile ticked by and it was looking good. Hitting 10 miles on 1:30:XX meant I had averaged a 9 minute mile thus far and the biggest hill was out the way.
The longer I went on, the harder it felt as I was getting warm, there was a strong wind in places and I had a long, steady incline in the last mile or so home. To be honest, I thought I had lost it by then, but pushed on to give myself another “win” in the mental battle. I was therefore thrilled to see when I stopped my watch that I was bang on the average pace I wanted to see. I donāt think Iāll be running the marathon quite like that, but it is valuable information in helping me formulate a race plan (and backup plans – always have a backup!).
So now there are just 2 weeks to go. Next weekend Iām going to rearrange my running a bit so I can get my miles in but still work around some other commitments. This means Iāve managed to give myself a rare day āoffā on Sunday, so if you want me Iāll be in front of the TV, still in my pyjamas and clutching a cup of tea while I watch coverage of the London marathon. I canāt wait!
If youāre running London, then I wish you all the very best. Itās an amazing race and a fantastic experience.
What impact can you see in your training right now?
Will you be watching the London marathon on Sunday?
Tuesday began much the same, but this time I had an actual workout to do as there were more bike reps on the schedule. I got these done in the morning so I could enjoy the rest of my day (and take my time having a sauna afterwards!). It was quite chilly though and I spent a good part of my walk home wondering why I STILL needed to wear my hat and gloves! Definitely ready for some better weather.
Sadly that better weather seemed pretty far away on Wednesday as I awoke to MORE snow. Thankfully not too bad this time, but enough to disrupt my run. I had planned to warm up then run 10x 1km drills. I toyed with waiting until later in the day but there was no guarantee things would improve so in the end I bundled up and went for it.
For the first half of my run the roads and path were pretty slushy so each drill was more an exercise in not falling over, but some of the later drills were a bit more as they should be as I hit some paths that were much clearer. Typically things did clear up a bit later on but when I’m on holiday I always prefer to get my workout done in the morning. Oh well, yet another “character building” run in the snow!
And Steve took me to the farm shop cafe for a malteser slice and hot chocolate in the afternoon. Yum!
Thursday saw me back at the gym for my morning hot tub/sauna then in the afternoon I took a walk about mile up the road to meet Steve for a coffee. A new branch of a coffee shop chain had opened in the business park there so we thought we would take a look and have a coffee. The interior was nice and they have a drive through, but I think they have a bit of work to do on staff training as it took several different people to work out how to put the correct order through and a queue quickly formed behind us – oops!
When I got home I was pleased to find some interesting post. I had been following the incredible story of a cat called 
Then Sunday was The Big One. My 20 mile run. I got a bit distracted over breakfast as I found a live stream of the Paris marathon coverage and got caught up in watching that – in French! I followed a good bit of the commentary and was amused to note that as I looked at the footage and distance markers, I knew EXACTLY where on the course the runners were and could picture the scene. An interesting thing they did was set the women’s race off first for the first time in this event. Then started the men’s race 16 or so minutes later. It seems an odd gap, but it was the difference between the winning male and female times last year. This meant that both the male and female races finished together – in fact the lead man passed the lead woman about half a kilometre from the end and there were only a few seconds between them reaching the finish line. Instead of one lonely male runner finishing, there were several athletes running in at the same time which made for great viewing. I really liked the way this was done and the coverage which had a lot of split screen so you could watch both races at once. It will be interesting to see if other big races follow suit.
The plan this time was a 2 mile warm up then 3 sets of 4 miles at marathon pace/effort with 2 miles recovery. It did feel harder than my 18 mile run last week, but then I ran that after a couple of “easier” weeks so taking on 20 just one week later (and with my Friday workout still in my weary muscles) it’s quite right that this felt harder. That’s no bad thing since I’ll need to be ready to run on tired legs come race day. There were actually only 2 “harder” mile splits that I missed and both of those featured an incline, so overall I’m pleased with how it went and am now hoping that with fresher legs in 3 weeks I’ll be able to perform well.
Post-run (and lunch!) Steve and I headed out to the farm shop for some eggs and figured we might as well have a scone in the cafe while we were there – it would be rude not to! I’d love to tell you how is tasted, but I gobbled it up pretty quickly…
Then as soon as we got home we had the oven on ready to replace all those calories burned with another fine plate of carbs and chips šĀ Got to love the marathon appetite!
Definitely a good week of training. A hard week, but a good one nonetheless as I was able to keep going even with the accumulation of fatigue in my muscles. Now let the taper commence…!
Have you had any more snow?
With the clocks changing in the UK last weekend, Wednesday was the first evening run in this training cycle that took place in daylight – and it was hill reps. Thatās right, life and Mother Nature have allowed me to string together some consistent Wednesday night training for at least 3 weeks in a row and I need that now to ensure I keep finding improvements in my strength and fitness. I continue to have a love/hate relationship with hills – I love that it’s a reasonably short workout, but boy are those uphill bursts hard work. If you ever find me wheezing at the top of a hill, itās safe to assume I ran there hard!
Thursday was the last day of term. Iāll admit I was really digging deep for the energy to get there and as I drove home at the end of the day I could feel a tiredness I hadnāt felt in a long time. I suspect this was my brain letting my body know I could finally relax and acknowledging how tired the term had made me (as a side note, I once tried NOT training for a marathon during this term, expecting to feel a bit less tired and if anything I felt WORSE without the time for myself and regular hit of endorphins. An interesting observation!). Luckily it was a yoga night and it felt great to round off the term on my yoga mat. The class was small so we did a little more work on headstands (I can do it with support but am not yet able to hold a headstand by myself. One day!). Post-yoga I had made an appointment to get my nails done and decided to change things up a bit with a more neutral colour (I usually go for deep reds and purples). I did ask to have a shimmery topcoat on the ring finger of each hand just to keep things interesting, though!
The following day was Good Friday, hence it being the first day of our break. I decided to take things easy and gave myself permission to be a bit lazy. I made myself a cup of tea and took it to bed with me to spend a little time finishing off my book. I then tidied up a few bits and pieces before taking a walk to my gym. I only wanted to use the hot tub and sauna, but walking there meant I got a bit of fresh air and movement in my day.
I had originally planned to head over to the studio for a PT session later in the day, but due to the combination of Easter weekend traffic and an accident, the roads were gridlocked and Steve said it wasnāt worth trying to get over there. Instead I had a nice chilled afternoon and did a bit of yoga. I also came across this while scrolling social media. Your Running Princess is in an 
And in other news, my race number for the marathon arrived. Eek!
Saturday morning was a bit miserable looking, so I decided to brighten things up with my asymmetric leggings for parkrun. After a good run in Perth a couple of weeks ago, I had thought I might be in a position to run a bit better so was ready to go for it. Weāre still on our alternative course as the grass on our main route remains far too boggy to use given the numbers we have these days, and this week we were running the laps clockwise. Last time we did this there was a pretty strong headwind but this time it felt a bit better.
I thought I was lined up quite near to the start line, but somehow ended up stuck behind some slower runners and it took a bit of time to find some space at the start. After that, I felt like I was flying. I kept waiting for my legs to turn to jelly or my CV system to give up, but it didnāt happen and I was able to pass a few people (mainly guys, some of whom didnāt seem to like being passed by a girl in mad leggings!). I had hoped to maybe sneak under 24 for the first time this year, but with the slower start this was not to be – 24:01 so just missing out. Oh well! A little irritating, but still my fastest this year and another Royal Flush Negative Split. I’d says that sub-24 is in there and it would be great to be back in that kind of form before the marathon at the end of April. Watch this space!
On Sunday I had 18 miles on my schedule and it was a cold but bright morning. I decided to repeat the same route and workout that I did for my 
Post-run I enjoyed some time chilling out with my free coffee (thank you Fitness Rewards!) and cracked open my chocolate bunny. I think I earned it!
And I replaced the calories I’d burned with this awesome plate of carby goodness š Gotta love marathon training!
Tell me how your training/racing has been going lately.
Post-run I felt really tired. I think Iāve reached that point in the school year where all the demands of supporting senior pupils through drafts and redrafts of their coursework (and meeting the deadlines!) starts to affect me. I felt a bit āoffā and could feel myself shutting down so headed to bed almost as soon as Iād eaten. I must have fallen right asleep as I woke up when Steve came to bed and realised I still had my glasses on and my book in my hand!
To make things easier we had just driven there wearing the clothes we planned to eat in. That meant all we needed was our overnight things and our parkrun kit for the morning (because everyone books a night away in a nice hotel and plans to go to a parkrun in the morning, right?).
Dinner may have been early, but we were definitely hungry. The waiter took our orders for starters and main courses then said he would get our dessert orders after we had eaten them in case we were too full (rookie mistake lol!). I had grilled asparagus wrapped in Serrano ham to start, chicken Milanese with a side salad for my main course and we both wanted the chocolate fondue for dessert so it came on one big plate. This was accompanied by a small glass of red wine as we were conscious we had a bottle of champagne in our room which would NOT go to waste, but we were determined to run in the morning!
The early dinner meant it felt like we had a lovely long evening ahead of us. We opened the fizz and since I had been complaining of a dull headache all day, Steve checked my neck and upper back – definitely the culprits as I was all tight and knotted so he worked on that for a bit then I took my fizz into a nice hot bubble bath (I ALWAYS have a bath in a hotel if I can). So nice and relaxing.
Before bed we got our things ready for the morning and thought it would be funny to take flat lay photos as if we were heading to a race. The irony of our situation hadnāt escaped us – usually we stay in a hotel specifically to go to a race; this time we were having a relaxing night away but couldnāt resist the lure of parkrun!
Breakfast started at 8am and we planned to be away around 8:30 as although there is a parkrun in Dundee (at Camperdown park), we have done it twice before as part of the 
It was such a nice spring-like morning and Craigtoun park looked lovely. Of course Steve managed to meet someone he knows and I spotted a few familiar faces from my school community as St Andrews is only about 10 miles away from where I work. We felt really welcome as people told us about the course and the expected winner (a young guy who completes the course in around 15:40!) ahead of the first timers briefing.
The course was three and a bit laps of the park. The start is right by the car park and the route begins on a smooth tarmac path then changes to gravel path for the bulk of the rest of the lap. Compared to Perth, there as a few more ups and downs, but nothing like Dundee which is known for being quite hilly. Perhaps a bit more unique is the ārailwayā crossing as Craigtoun has a little train for kids which circles the park in the summer months.
I probably got a little carried away on my first lap and slowed a bit for the second two when my body remembered the three course meal, champagne and breakfast! Still, 24:32 is a decent time and Iām pretty pleased with that. I later found out that the winner set a new course record with his time of 15:38. Speedy!
It was really nice to do a bit of parkrun tourism as here in Scotland itās not so easy as in some other parts of the UK. We have plenty of parkruns (I believe 35) but spread far and wide so very few are within about 30 minutes of home. St Andrews was the first time Iāve been at a different parkrun at the exact same time as my usual run in Perth (Dundee has always been at New Year when I run Perth either before or after and 
Anyway, although the weather might not be spring-like just yet, there’s still a marathon to train for and this week saw another pretty consistent week:
By Thursday I was more than ready to get back to my yoga mat and working through the Ashtanga sequence. It was a really nice class again and I felt good throughout. Just what I needed.
On Saturday we awoke to rather miserable weather. Apparently we were experiencing the Mini 
So once more it was winter kit on and down to the North Inch for the run. Still the alternative route, but the “usual” one heading anti-clockwise around the path. I hadn’t been expecting much as I thought there might be some residual weariness in my legs and there was a bitterly cold cross-wind, but despite having hailstones blown into my face (bonus: free facial š) I felt strong and was passing people I would normally expect to be slightly behind. As I stopped my watch I was delighted to see 24:10ish (my fastest since mid-November) and around 30 seconds faster than my best time of 2018! No idea where it came from, but it’s a powerful message that even in tough conditions all my training is starting to fall into place and I’m running well. Fingers crossed that continues!
And as an added bonus, I managed another Royal Flush Negative Split. Love it when that happens! I think this is the first fully sub-8 minute/mile parkrun in ages as up to now I’ve had at least the first mile at 8:XX. Progress!
At first I sat plotting out a possible route and looking out my gels, etc with the intention of going ahead, but then Steve (who NEVER backs out of the planned run) suggested that since some nearby running events had been cancelled due to the conditions, maybe sticking two fingers up at it and heading out for 20 anyway might not be the best idea. It was clear we wouldnāt be able to include any faster intervals, work on form or do anything other than plod around with the aim of staying upright whilst being battered by the wind and stepping carefully on the snow. So we decided to cut it back to 10 miles. We bundled ourselves up in winter kit (again) and Steve was out the door a few minutes ahead of me.
Since we had planned to run opposite ways around a similar route, we did meet each other out there, having enjoyed sideways hail, snow being blown into our faces so we couldn’t see a thing, and a hellish headwind. Every time it seemed to be easing off, it returned with a vengeance to make a pretty slow pace feel much harder than it should. Definitely character building! Steve said he might extend his run a little depending on how he felt, so with that idea in the back of my mind I carried on.
I still think the weather must be broken though!
On Thursday I was pleased to have my Ashtanga yoga class. I missed this the previous two weeks (I had a parentsā evening a couple of weeks ago then the following week class was cancelled due to the snow). There were some newer yogis in the class so we simply worked through the asanas from the primary series that we normally do, no opportunity to work on my headstand this time. Still, it was great to be back in the yoga studio and I really enjoyed the class.
As parkrunday rolled around again, we were still on the alternative course as thanks to the melted snow and heavy rainfall, the grass section was completed saturated and churned up. For variety, it was decided that we would run the double loop course in reverse this week. It initially sounded appealing, but in the end was not the best week for this decision as there was some pretty heavy rain and one of those āScottish headwindsā (a headwind in every direction – how is this even possible?!?!?). On the first lap I felt like I was working quite hard, much harder than the pace my watch was giving me, but I was still surrounded by all the same people I usually am so just went with it. In the end I managed another Royal Flush Negative Split and with a finish time of 24:49 was just 8 seconds slower than a couple of weeks ago when I ran my fastest this year. Given the conditions, Iām pretty happy with that, even if I did look like a drowned rat when I finished!
Post-parkrun I headed home for a really quick shower before a brief stop at our neighbourās house. He had run his 200th parkrun that morning and had invited people round for a cup of tea and cake/biscuits afterwards. I couldnāt stay long but had enough time for a quick chat, cup of tea (always awesome after a chilly parkrun) and one of his homemade biscuits which were marking the occasion.
I then had to speed off to go and get my hair cut before getting on with the usual Saturday errands of food shopping and catching up on various jobs. Probably fir the best oterhwise I might still be there eating biscuits š.
When I run 18 miles I always feel near enough ready to run the marathon, but with a few weeks and more long runs still to go, it will be interesting to see how things progress for me. Iām still not setting a time goal though! I just want to see what happens when there’s no pressure.
Sunday finished in a pretty chilled fashion with a trip into town for coffee, some TV and lots of food before my usual Epsom salt bath. Lovely! And my legs didn’t feel too bad either…
