Marathon training and a trial at a different run club

[Cowladyrunning]

Just lately a neighbour has been accompanying me on my long runs - or part of them as she doesn't need to go as far. It has been lovely - made the miles tick by much more easily and probably faster than in my walky run mode! I'm up to 16 miles on my plan and even managed to run on holiday.

Then this neighbour encouraged me to try her club, so I raced my evening farm jobs to get there for 6.30pm and attended the speed session. Well.... I was by far the slowest and found it REALLY hard! They were fast and I probably started off way too fast. We did loops of the rugby pitch, starting at 5k pace ... not sure what my 5k pace is ... Then supposedly speeding up for second 5 laps. I got slower and slower- redder and worn out looking. Sooo I think I need to up my game a bit!!! Strava reported the session as lighter than my usual effort so not sure how 🤣 Oh yes nearly forgot - I got new shoes too but scraped the car while parking for them 🙊I'll add a pic. 🥰 I love them!

[SueAppleRun 10 Miles]

It must be the month for shoes, they look lovely, you will have many happy miles in them I'm sure. Oh no, scraping the car is pants, hope its not too bad. That was a tough run, maybe shorter is why Strava says its lighter. But you can feel chuffed because you did it.

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to SueAppleRun]

Yes I confess I saw an email heading that mentioned shoes and you but haven't found it yet!

[Shake-and-run Half Marathon]

Sounds like an exciting time down on the farm. Lovely to have company on your long runs, I found it really helped. Well done on joining-in with the club. So long as the people are really friendly and supportive, it doesn't matter if you are a little off the pace, Im sure it will make you stronger in the long run. Lovely shoes, sorry about the motor.

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to Shake-and-run]

Thank you, they were really friendly and inclusive so I will go back. 😊 Just a bit of a scratch but didn't help when Mr Cowman thought it was a bit soon for new trainers too. 🙊🙊🙊

[misswobble Marathon]

ouch! Costly new shoes then 😟. Lovely though 🤗🥰. Have fun in them 😀👍🏃‍♀️

[Cmoi Marathon]

Gorgeous new shoes  Cowladyrunning and boo to scraping the car!

Great that you liked the running club, but why feel you need to up your game? You're in the middle of training for your first marathon, at Loch Ness, and you've just done your longest-ever run, with a decent amount of vertical too if I remember rightly. Give yourself credit for that. A "speed session" at minimum 5k pace round and round a rugby pitch might suit a Flatty McFlatface city centre 10K, but in the context of your goal, it's pretty irrelevant, other than perhaps as a lesson in perseverance. Which you don't need anyway, you're doing just great as it is!

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

Thank you Cmoi for your confidence. I was just thinking if I couldn't even keep up with them I might run out of ooomph to get me to the end of the marathon..... Thank you

[Kevin41 Half Marathon in reply to Cowladyrunning]

I came here to say something similar to Cmoi You are currently working on a marathon, doing a speed session at 5k pace would always seem too fast and a shock to the system if you haven’t been doing speed sessions and the majority of your recent runs will have been at a significantly slower pace. Great you enjoyed it though as really that’s what we do it for isn’t it?

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to Kevin41]

Thank you Kevin41 yes I had some good advice for using my new garmin 245 too

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Cowladyrunning]

You're welcome Cowladyrunning ! You already know that you're way more likely to run out of ooomph during the marathon if you try to go too fast. It's an endurance event, not a speedfest.

Doing the right training for you and your event is the way to go, not trying to keep up with others just for the sake of. In any case, why would anyone want to hammer along by Loch Ness looking at their watch rather than the scenery? Makes no sense to me.

Happy running!

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

I'm looking forward to the views certainly!

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Cowladyrunning]

I'm pretty confident I could have cut at least half an hour off my Trail du Gévaudan chip time if I'd concentrated on running efficiency rather than making memories. I can't tell you either my chip time or moving time, but I could go on for hours about the experience.

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

I just listened again to the Jenni Falconer's runpod episode with Rosie Tapner because I wanted to hear again how she trained with 28 minutes run and 2 minute walk. She said exactly what you have - if you enter with the only focus being I'm going to finish this - you will enjoy it much more than having a time in mind. At the start we had to give our aims for the marathon and mine was - to finish the marathon - comfortably! I should look back at that more often!

[Cmoi Marathon in reply to Cowladyrunning]

Despite having done all the training plan runs in my plan, I was hyper-aware that I'd quite possibly bitten off more than I could chew, just because of the nature of the event I did.

So I played loads of mind games, literally telling myself OK, just get to the first aid station. Then to 10k. Then to the next aid station. Then to the highest point. Then oh look, I've done over a HM, it's shorter now to the end than it is from the start.

My longest training run was just over 33k, so on the day when I got to 10k I reminded myself it was only 32.2k to the finish and I'd already done a longer run than that.

Admittedly it turned out that the event was 10% over-length, but since my target was the finish, rather than 42.2k, that didn't bother me much. Though if the route had fallen short of marathon distance I'd have been seriously miffed!

You won't have those issues, you'll be fine. Happy training!

[GTFC Marathon in reply to Cmoi]

👏👏👏👏 Cmoi

[linda9389 Administrator Marathon]

I love the twists and turns in this post CLR 😍

Sixteen miles is a great distance; it's only a little short of the Metric Marathon distance too (16.3 miles), so be sure to come back and claim your shiny badge here.

Good luck with the running club, you will find your groove 🥰

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to linda9389]

ooo yay another badge - I hadn't realised!! I'll be back

[Teresa1632 Marathon]

Ouch to the car, hope it just needs a T cut. Rugby club runners specialise in speed/fast explosive starts. Your speciality (currently), is distance and aerobic base. I bet they'd struggle to stay with you for 16 miles. I know from experience - my friend plays rugby and she is like a whippet, but would struggle on endurance. Also, as you are running for endurance your 5k will be a bit slower. Nothing wrong with that at all.Enjoy the speed sessions, and remind yourself that your speciality is distance 😊

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to Teresa1632]

certainly is - thank you. I was always rubbish at school sports day sprints and very good at Cross country!!

[GTFC Marathon]

You are doing SO well Cowladyrunning so massive congratulations on your 16 mile run. You'll grow into the way they do things at the running club in time and it's another form of training too. Here's to many miles in your new shoes 😃😃😃😃

[Cowladyrunning Marathon in reply to GTFC]

Thank you very much GTFC for your support. I think I just need to get to know my paces and stick to them!