TCS NYC Marathon 2018: 31 Days to go

So with the TCS NYC marathon only 31 days away this is a brief overview of my recent training, in the buildup.

As a word of caution, this is a partial snapshot from my training cycle, which varies in mileage, intensity, rest days each week. In this training block it’s focused more on endurance over speed.

Monday: 65 minutes easy pace. This was following an 18 mile run the day earlier so I kept it at recovery pace.

Tuesday: 65 minutes easy pace. It felt like my legs were lighter but I kept it at a steady pace around 8’35 minute per mile.

Wednesday:

15 miler AM: So my midweek long run was done before work. The run was broken down into the following three parts.

⁃ 6 miles @ 60 seconds slower than marathon pace

⁃ 4 miles tempo @ half marathon effort. My legs were still tired so was just eight seconds off my target. But all things considered it wasn’t too bad.

⁃ 5 miles @ 60 seconds slower than marathon pace

PM: It’s good to switch things up, so as part of my cross training I’m taking several refresher swimming lessons in the coming weeks, thanks to Swimming Nature at Fitness First Baker Street, London.

So whilst I can swim, my frontcrawl technique needs some work. Whilst running has got me leaner and lighter, it’s not great for swimming as I have little buoyancy, due to low fat and low muscle bulk.

Working with Sam who is from a triathlon background. We focused on my improving my leg kick. Like a bull in a china shop I tend to kick too hard from the knees, which isn’t efficient. So it was going back to basics starting from kicking from the hip and working down to extending my feet, for a more efficient kick.

Kit wise thanks to Decathlon for supplying the swimming goggles and trunks. I’m a big fan of the brand as the equipment is reasonably priced for access and good quality. Funny enough in the lesson the instructor (Sam) got me to use Decathlon shorter fins, to work on extending my feet for a smoother kicking motion, just to help with the mobility in my feet.

Thursday: 65 minutes easy at recovery pace.

Friday: 65 minutes easy pace, with some strides as a sharpener, as I wasn’t running intervals this week. It’s a real balance between running slow for aerobic development and adding speed, especially for marathon training.

Saturday: 65 minutes easy pace. I kept it slow today as I knew I needed to save my legs for tomorrow’s workout.

Sunday: 18 miler – Split into the following three segments

⁃ 3 miles warm up;

⁃ 13 miles at 10-15 seconds slower than marathon effort. Thankfully as I saved my legs yesterday, I ran quicker than my target pace;

⁃ 2 miles warm down.

Monday: 65 minutes easy pace. This was following an 18 mile run the day earlier so I kept it at recovery pace as my legs were heavy.

Tuesday: Interval day. So afterwork I changed into my running kit and ran to my first lesson at The Altitude Centre.

Storing my work clothes, laptop etc was stored safety during the run commute, thanks to my iamrunbox backpack pro which is primarily designed for this. Once you clip the two clasps into place at your front, it holds the case securely with minimal bounce.

It has a hard case which securely holds my work laptop and kit. Coupled with the shoe bag it gives extra room, which is useful as it’s quite compact for storage. Once I get more runs in with it, I will be doing a long term review of the product.

So back to the running. I attended two interval classes at The Altitude Centre in London. Which through the specially designed chamber reduces the amount of oxygen and simulates being at altitude.

The benefit is with less oxygen your body has to work harder. This in turn creates more red blood cells which carry more oxygen, which help with your performance and recovery.

It tends to take about several weeks of training to see the benefit, so whilst I may not get the full benefit for NYC, it should help me when I run Peru Half Marathon Des Sables in December. But thanks to Sam and the team for looking after me and putting me through my paces in my first classes, which was a instructor led interval running session on a treadmill.

So back to training. The rest of the week will be easy paced runs, which will save my legs as I work towards the 15 mile Urban Rush race on the weekend. This race will give me a good indication of where I am pace wise for NYC. And I’ll talk about how I get on in the next article.

TCS NYC Marathon 2018: This is the major that triggered the idea that the six marathon majors could be achievable and is a special marathon for me personally.

I’m proud to be apart of the #MovedMe campaign. Through the micro site, it will bring you first-hand experiences of the TCS NYC Marathon to other runners, in a series of upcoming articles located at this link https://www.itwillmoveyou.nyc