3 weeks left. 4 training days and a highlight of 5 sub 7 min miles.

The ability to remain focused on a long term goal is something I have always thought I would be able to do, since I followed a 4 month plan in ‘09 for my first marathon, I have found the discipline of ensuring I follow the expected mileage more of a challenge than the event I use it for.

I started this week with a 7.5 mile run on Tuesday evening which was quite a settled pace. There was a certain element of enthusiasm that was gone last week and I enjoyed being able to use on this run. I found the momentum from this fed into my session the next day.

I have found my average speed has decreased considerably since I increased my weekly mileage from 40+ to 60+ over the last few months. The ability to get up to the sort of speed I used to do 5km or 10km runs on the treadmill had been out of reach recently, never mind sustaining it over those distances. I started out my 5 miles on the treadmill at 7.5 miles an hour then aimed to increase it intermittently but never go below that speed. My maths was good enough to work out what pace I needed for the last km to get under 35 mins and I didn’t feel I was emptying the tank to do it.

I had to curtail my 6.4 mile run with Paddy on Friday morning due to forgetting about a work commitment. This is unlike me and I didn’t particularly like cutting it short. I managed to get in 5.5 miles and get to work acceptably late.

I did the 5.4 mile loop twice on Saturday morning. These were a nice change from the 7.5 mile loops from the 75 mile week.

I finished the week with a 9.3 mile run with Paddy, I think there was a bit of healthy competition to set the pace for parts of the run between us. The good thing about this was that the other would manage to stick around with the increased pace and hills were not a factor in the pace being sustained. I think we both have a certain manliness that we would much rather get “dropped” (left behind) on a flat than going up a hill.

Next week will be my last full tapering week and I will be happy with 35-40 again before the week of the race. It’s a kind if surreal feeling that the race is this close after training towards it for nearly 6 months but hopefully it will end up being worth it.